# starch
## English
### 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

* (US) IPA: /stɑɹt͡ʃ/
* (UK) IPA: /stɑːt͡ʃ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)tʃ

### Noun

starch (countable and uncountable, plural starches)
* (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.
    Hypernyms: polysaccharide < carbohydrate
    Hyponyms: cornstarch, hydroxypropyl starch, modified starch, potato starch, tapioca starch, tous-les-mois starch, wheat starch
    Meronym: saccharide
    Coordinate terms: sugar; glycogen; cellulose
** 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.
* (nutrition, countable) Carbohydrates, as with grain and potato based foods.
* (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, VisitsThe spelling has been modernized.
* (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.
* (countable) Any of various starch-like substances used as a laundry stiffener.
** 1928, “You're the Cream in My Coffee”, Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown (lyrics):You're the starch in my collar / You're the lace in my shoe / You will always be my necessity / I'd be lost without you

#### Derived terms

* cornstarch
* hydroxypropyl starch
* hydroxypropyl starch glycerine
* hydroxypropyl starch phosphate
* modified starch
* potato starch
* starch hyacinth
* starch-root
* starchy
* tapioca starch
* tous-les-mois starch
* wheat starch

#### Translations
### Verb

starch (third-person singular simple present starches, present participle starching, simple past and past participle starched)
* To apply or treat with laundry starch, to create a hard, smooth surface.
    She starched her blouses.

#### Translations
### Adjective

starch (not comparable)
* 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

* starchness

#### Translations
### References

* “starch”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* trachs, crasht, archts., charts

## Cimbrian
### Adjective

starch
* strong
* loud

### References

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