From Ottoman Turkish سركه (sirke, “vinegar”), from Proto-Turkic *sirke (“vinegar, acid”).
Cognate with Old Turkic [script needed] (sirke), Azerbaijani sirkə (“vinegar”), Bashkir һеркә (herkə, “vinegar”), Uzbek sirka (“vinegar”), Kazakh сірке (sırke, “vinegar”), Turkmen sirke (“vinegar”), etc. Compare Chuvash шарак (šarak, “bitter; salt”). Akin to Persian سرکه (serke); according to Doerfer the direction of a possible borrowing is not clear.