Farinaceous is the adjective for flour that contains starch — used for describing starchy, floury foods and ingredients. The word comes from farina, the Latin for flour or meal, and it marks the carbohydrate heart of the diet: wheat, rice, maize, and the flours milled from them. A farinaceous food is one whose substance is starch — bread, pasta, porridge — as opposed to the protein of meat or the fat of oil. Dietitians use the term in its technical sense when classifying foods by composition; older cookbooks use it more loosely for anything floury or mealy in texture. The farinaceous foods are humanity’s staple energy source — the grains that feed the world, named by the flour they become.