A starch or starch-like substance, sometimes used as a synonym for starch in older chemistry texts, or a specific starch derivative.
From French 'amidon' (starch), possibly from 'à mi' + 'don' or from Latin origins meaning 'not grain.' The term primarily survives in older chemical and pharmaceutical literature.
Before 'starch' became the standard term, 'amidon' was how chemists referred to these glucose polymers, showing how scientific language constantly updates—we keep the most useful terms and retire the old ones.
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