See also FERINE, FARINHA. [a. L. farīna, f. far corn. Cf. F. farine.]
1. The flour or meal of any species of corn, nut, or starchy root.
[1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., xvii. lxvii. (1495), 643. Mele is properly called farina whan the corne is well grounde.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 29. The Meale was called Farina.]
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., II. 265. The farina of wheat does not give carbonate of lime by incineration.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 133. Two scruples of the farina of the Croton nut should be given in a little gruel.
1876. Harley, Mat. Med., 316. Starch is the farina of seeds and soft cellular roots and stems.
b. A powdery substance, dust.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 33. A white substance which we call Farina (Meal) to nourish the new-born Plant.
1764. J. Grainger, The Sugar Cane, IV. 534, note. Small seeds, covered with a red farina.
1783. J. C. Smyth, in Med. Commun., I. 194. Some have the surface covered with a fine white powder, or farina.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 32. Rub off the farina, should any adhere.
c. A preparation of maize used for puddings.
2. In various scientific uses. a. Bot. = Pollen.
1721. R. Bradley, Wks. Nature, 27. The Farina of each … Plant.
1770–4. A. Hunter, Georg. Ess. (1803), I. 486. We having no male plants, the flowers of our female were never impregnated by the farina of the male.
1861. The Saturday Review, XI. 15 June, 619/2. It is the bee and its congeners who, by carrying the fructifying farina from flower to flower, convert flowers into fruit; and without them, in truth, our gardens would remain comparatively unproductive.
b. Chem. A fine while powder obtained from cereals, the potato, etc.; starch.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., i. (1814), 11. The compounds in vegetables really nutritive as the food of animals, are very few; farina or the pure matter of starch, gluten, sugar, vegetable jelly, oil, and extract.
1830. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., I. 345. This white matter will at length subside: it may be collected on a filter and dried: it is then starch or farina.
c. Entom. A mealy powder found on some insects.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 327. Aphis ulmi, Lin. Body cylindrical, brown, covered with farina; wings very long, sloping like a roof, with a small brown spot in the middle of the exterior border; tubercles of the abdomen short. Inhabits Europe, on the elm.
d. Geol. Fossil farina (see quot. 1859).
1816. P. Cleaveland, Min. & Geol. (ed. 2), I. 170. It [fossil farina] appears in thin, white crusts, light as cotton, and very easily reducible to powder. These crusts are attached to the lateral or lower surfaces of beds of shell limestone, &c.
1859. D. Page, Handbk. Geol. Terms, Fossil Farina, a mealy-looking infusorial or microphytal earth—the Berg-mahl of the Swedes and Laplanders.
3. Comb. farina-boiler, U.S., a utensil used for cooking farinaceous articles (Cent. Dict.)
