starch

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English

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Etymology

From Middle English starche, sterche, from Old English *stierċe (“stiffness, rigidity, strength”), from Proto-West Germanic *starkī (“stiffness, rigidity, fortitude, strength”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sterg- (“stiff, rigid”). Cognate with dialectal Dutch sterk (“strong”), Middle Low German sterke (“strength”), German Stärke (“strength", also "starch”), Swedish stärkelse (“starch”), Icelandic sterkja (“starch”). Related to English stark (“stiff, strong, vigorous, powerful”).

Pronunciation

Noun

starch (countable and uncountable, plural starches)

  1. (uncountable) A widely diffused vegetable substance, found especially in seeds, bulbs and tubers, as extracted (e.g. from potatoes, corn, rice, etc.) in the form of a white, glistening, granular or powdery substance, without taste or smell, and giving a very peculiar creaking sound when rubbed between the fingers. It is used as a food, in the production of commercial grape sugar, for stiffening linen in laundries, in making paste, etc.
    • 1892, Ella Eaton Kellogg, “Foods”, in Science in the Kitchen: A Scientific Treatise on Food Substances and Their Dietetic Properties, Together with a Practical Explanation of the Principles of Healthful Cookery, and a Large Number of Original, Palatable, and Wholesome Recipes‎, Revised edition, Michigan: Health Publishing Company, page 25:
      The various elements found in food are the following: Starch, sugar, fats, albumen, mineral substances, indigestible substances.
  2. (nutrition, countable) Carbohydrates, as with grain and potato based foods.
  3. (uncountable) A stiff, formal manner; formality.
    • 1712 March 1 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “TUESDAY, February 19, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 305; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, , volume IV, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
      this Professor is to give the society their stiffening, and infuse into their manners that beautiful political starch, which may qualify them for Levées, Conferences, Visits
      The spelling has been modernized.
  4. (uncountable) Fortitude.
    • 2017, Dean Koontz, The Silent Corner, page 98:
      The thought of the gun in his back put some starch in him. He needed the handrail, and he limped step by step, but he ascended at his full height.
  5. (countable) Any of various starch-like substances used as a laundry stiffener.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

starch (third-person singular simple present starches, present participle starching, simple past and past participle starched)

  1. To apply or treat with laundry starch, to create a hard, smooth surface.
    She starched her blouses.

Translations

Adjective

starch (not comparable)

  1. Stiff; precise; rigid.
    • 1713, John Killingbeck, Eighteen sermons on practical subjects:
      misrepresenting Sobriety as a Starch and Formal, and Vertue as a Laborious and Slavish thing

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

Cimbrian

Adjective

starch

  1. strong
  2. loud

References

  • Umberto Patuzzi, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar, Luserna: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien
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