sago
/ˈseɪɡəʊ
/noun (plural sagos)
1 [mass noun] Edible starch which is obtained from a palm and is a staple food in parts of the tropics. The pith inside the trunk is scraped out, washed, and dried to produce a flour or processed to produce the granular sago used in the West.Although these essays are concerned with others crops too, only Ellen's contribution is really focused on another staple food, sago....
- Foods like coconuts, sago and other staples like cassava, sweet potatoes and taro are collected and donated.
- It is a large family, belonging to the tropics and subtropics, and many of its members furnish important foodstuffs: the coconut, date, sago, palm sugar, etc.
1.1 (also sago pudding) A sweet dish made from sago and milk.When householders are given the chips, they get a lipstick-sized phial containing what looks like black sago pudding - vast numbers of particles held in a white bonding solution....
- It is like beating my head against sago pudding.
- Casey bit into the mango and sago pudding and grinned.
2 (sago palm) The palm from which most sago is obtained, growing in freshwater swamps in SE Asia.
- Metroxylon sagu, family Palmae.
- The sago palm grows 7-8 m high and is felled when it flowers.
- Likewise, the center says certain plants are fatal if eaten, including azalea, oleander, sago palm and yew.
2.1Any of a number of palms or cycads which yield a starch similar to sago.Prime candidates are the DNA poison cycasin from the false sago palm, or two excitotoxins that also come from this palm.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from Malay sagu (originally via Portuguese).