dextrose n.

word-forming element meaning "toward or on the right-hand side," from combining form of Latin dexter (from PIE root *deks- "right, opposite of left; south").

standard ending in chemical names of sugars, originally simply a noun-forming suffix, taken up by French chemists mid-19c.; it has no etymological connection with sugar. It appears around the same time in two chemical names, cellulose, which would owe it to the French suffix, and glucose, where it would be a natural result from the Greek original. Flood favors origin from glucose.