Ken,

As someone who shares an interest in etymology, I appreciate your comments
about starch.  Allow me to say, though, that I'm still somewhat unclear
about this issue and whether it is *kind* or *amount* that determines
whether a food is called simply a carb or a starch.  (But thanks to all who
contributed some info.)

As for starching clothes, any nursing mother can tell you that leaking
breast milk will starch a bra/shirt/bedsheets stiff.  :-)  Yet I don't think
human breast milk is routinely thought of as a starch.  And epsom salts
(magnesium sulfate) will also "starch" (i.e., stiffen) fabrics.

Theola