starch

Meaning

Noun

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.
2. (countable) Carbohydrates, as with grain and potato based foods.
3. (uncountable) A stiff, formal manner; formality.
4. (uncountable) Fortitude.
5. (countable) Any of various starch-like substances used as a laundry stiffener.

Verb

To apply or treat with laundry starch, to create a hard, smooth surface.

Adj

Stiff; precise; rigid.

Synonyms

amylum

glue

paste

amyl

carbohydrate

farina

flour

size

stiffen

stiffness

goo

grainy

grass

meal

mucilage

broth

primness

starch grain

sizing

starched

starchy

rice-water

starch powder

amyloid

cooked rice

cream

thick fluid

clear-starch

fruits

cereal

Translations

almidón

amidon

amido

Stärke

amido

άμυλο

midó

zetmeel

amidonner

inamidare

nişasta

stärken

empeser

نشاء

Pronounced as (IPA)

/stɑɹt͡ʃ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: starche

Inherited from Old English: *stierċe

Cognate with Dutch: sterk

Cognate with Middle Low German: sterke

Cognate with German: Stärke

Cognate with Swedish: stärkelse

Cognate with Icelandic: sterkja

Cognate with English: stark

In summary

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”).