Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US black) an affectionate name, usu. for a woman or homosexual man [abbr. SE sugar].

1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 28: Shug said, ‘Well, we don’t git it by astin’ you mens for it.’.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 81: (to a man) That’s what I want, sug.
1951		H. Williams ‘Howlin’ at the Moon’ 🎵 Well, Shug, I took one look at you and it almost drove me mad / And then I even went and lost what little sense I had.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 180: shug [...] an endearment.
1980		J.L. Gwaltney Drylongso 276: My grandfather said, ‘Shug, you step outside.’.

2. (Aus./US) money [sugar n.¹ (1)].

a.1882		Sydney Sl. Dict.
1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 10 Nov. 6/2: ‘If old Dutchy’s turned up any shug and you’ve collared the whole boodle by yourself, the sooner you skips [...] the better’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Feb. 6/4: It appears that William came there, not to make money, but ‘to arouse the people of Gundagai from the dormant state they had been in for 20 years, to a knowledge that they were not serfs; that they were in a free, liberty-loving country, […]’ &c., but that One, who had promised to find the ‘shug’ for the prosecution of this glorious campaign, had ‘caved’.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 239/1: shug – money.