a. and sb. [f. L. amyl-um, Gr. ἄμυλ-ον starch + -OID.] A. adj.
1. Having the form or nature of starch, starch-like.
1857. Henfrey, Elem. Bot., § 671. Semi-gelatinous layers of thickening met with in … certain seeds (called amyloid).
1877. Athenæum, 1 Dec., 703/1. These yellow cells contain not oil but amyloid substances.
2. (See B. 3.)
B. sb. 1. Any non-nitrogenous starchy food.
1872. Huxley, Phys., vi. 134. Amyloids are substances which also consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen only.
2. ‘A starch-like substance forming the cell-walls in the cotyledons of various plants.’ Syd. Soc. Lex.
1873. Le Conte, in Stewart, Conserv. Force, vii. 177. The plastic matters of which vegetable structure is built are of two kinds—amyloids and albuminoids.
3. An albuminoid (formerly supposed to be a substance akin to starch) developed in diseased degeneration of various animal organs. Also used attrib., as amyloid bodies, substance, degeneration.
1872. Thudichum, Chem. Phys., 5. The term amyloid is perfectly correct as applied to this particular degeneration.
1879. Syd. Soc. Lex., s.v., Late observations clearly show that amyloid substance is not a starch, but a nitrogenous body; its exact composition is not known.
