Sugarcane

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A tall tropical grass plant with thick, jointed stalks that contain sweet sap used to produce sugar and molasses
2. A species of tall grass characterized by its tall, jointed stalks, which are cultivated primarily for their sap that is processed into sweeteners like sugar and molasses
3. An elongated plant belonging to the grass family, renowned for its thick stalks that store sap, which is processed to yield sugar and molasses

Etymology: Sugarcane is a compound of "sugar" and "cane," two words that came into English along very different routes. "Cane," meaning a tall, hollow-stemmed plant or its stalk, comes from Latin "canna," which passed through Greek "kanna" and eventually into Old French and Middle English. "Sugar" is the older and more travelled half: it reached Europe from Arabic "sukkar," which was itself borrowed from Persian and ultimately from Sanskrit "śarkarā," meaning grit or gravel. The sense of gravel makes sense once you picture raw sugar crystals in their early form. Put together, the compound names the plant for what it yields rather than for its appearance. Early European writers knew sugar as a costly spice imported from the East, and the stalks of the grass that produced it were the source the English word points to. The spelling is written as one word in modern dictionaries, though "sugar cane" as two words is also common in usage.