Sago

Part of speech: noun (n.)

A dry granulated starch imported from the East Indies, much used for making puddings and as an article of diet for the sick; also, as starch, for stiffening textile fabrics. It is prepared from the stems of several East Indian and Malayan palm trees, but chiefly from the Metroxylon Sagu; also from several cycadaceous plants (Cycas revoluta, Zamia integrifolia, atc.). Portland sago, a kind of sago prepared from the corms of the cuckoopint (Arum maculatum). -- Sago palm. (Bot.) (a) A palm tree which yields sago. (b) A species of Cycas (Cycas revoluta). -- Sago spleen (Med.), a morbid condition of the spleen, produced by amyloid degeneration of the organ, in which a cross section shows scattered gray translucent bodies looking like grains of sago.