Etymology

starch

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Today it means: A widely diffused vegetable substance, found 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. Full definition →

Middle English starche ← Old English *stierċe ← Proto-West Germanic *starkī
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*sterg-“stiff, rigid”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*starkī“stiffness, rigidity, fortitude, strength”
  3. Old English · inherited from*stierċe“stiffness, rigidity, strength”
  4. Middle English · inherited fromstarche
  5. English todaystarch

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”).

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*sterg- all →

storge

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.