Forms: 6 gagara, 6–8 jagra, 7 jeggery, jagre, jaggaree, 7–8 jaggory, 8 jagree, 9 jagory, -ery, jaggeree, -ary, (jaghery, -ari), 7– jaggery. [a. Indo-Port. jágara, jagra, jagre, ad. Canarese sharkare, Urdū shakkar, Skr. çarkarā: see SUGAR.]
1. A coarse dark brown sugar made in India by evaporation from the sap of various kinds of palm.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 252. Sugar which is made of the nutte called Gagara: the tree is called the palmer.
1598. trans. Linschoten’s Voy., 102. Of the aforesaide Sura they likewise make Sugar, which is called Iagra.
1631. in Cal. Colon. Pap., E. Ind. (1892), 161. Half a hhd. of jaggery, given to him by Capt. Weddell.
1681. R. Knox, Hist. Ceylon, 15. The which Liquor they boyl and make a kind of brown Sugar, called Iaggory.
1732. Pike, in Phil. Trans., XXXVII. 231. Dissolve 20 lb of Jaggery, which is course Sugar (or thick Molasses) in Water.
1831. Capt. Trelawny, Adv. Younger Son, III. cxv. 224. Cargoes of coir, oil, jaggeree, ghee, and cocoa-nuts.
1897. Daily News, 29 Jan., 5/7. The Government have stopped irrigation in the case of all the ‘jaghari’ sugar-cane crops.
1899. F. T. Bullen, Log Sea-waif, 204. Jaggery, or palm sugar—looking like bags of black mud, and almost as nice to handle.
2. Jaggery palm, a palm-tree that yields jaggery, esp. Caryota urens.
1859. All Year Round, No. 32. 130. The tusked elephant is able to rip open the stems of the jaggery palms and young palmyras to extract the mealy core.
1890. Sara J. Duncan, Social Departure, 234. Brown ‘jaggery’ sugar, got from the jaggery palm.
