On Sat, 29 Jun 2002 23:52:15 -0500, Theola Walden Baker <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>Can someone clarify for me what makes a starch a starch?  The way I
>understand it, all starches are carbs, but not all carbs are starches.  Is
>that right?    What is so distinctly different that some vegetables are
>called starches, and others aren't.  Is there such a thing as a starchy
>fruit?
>
>Theola

starch (stärch) noun

1.A naturally abundant nutrient carbohydrate, (C6H10O5)n, found chiefly in the
seeds, fruits, tubers, roots, and stem pith of plants, notably in corn,
potatoes, wheat, and rice, and varying widely in appearance according to source
but commonly prepared as a white, amorphous, tasteless powder.
2.Any of various substances, such as natural starch, used to stiffen cloth, as
in laundering.
3.starches Foods having a high content of starch, as rice, breads, and
potatoes.
4.a. Stiff behavior. b. Vigor; mettle.

verb, transitive
starched, starching, starches
To stiffen with starch.

[Middle English starche, substance used to stiffen cloth (sense uncertain),
from sterchen, to stiffen, from Old English *stercan.]

Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third
Edition Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version
licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V., further reproduction and
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States. All rights reserved.