sago
(ˈseɪgəʊ)
Forms: 6–7 sagu, (7 zago, ? erron. sagous), 7–8 sagow, 8 sagoe, -oo, sego, seago, 7– sago.
[a. Malay sāgū. Cf. F. sagou, Sp. sag{uacu}, Pg. sagu, zagu, It. sagù, G. sago.]
1. The tree from which sago (see 2) is obtained.
| 1555 Eden Decades 229 In all the Ilandes of Molucca is founde cloues, ginger, breade of the roote of Sagu, ryse, goates [etc.]. 1783 Justamond tr. Raynal's Hist. Indies I. 143 Beside the cocoa tree, the Moluccas produce a singular kind of palm, which is called sago. 1820 Crawfurd Hist. Ind. Archipelago I. 385 The sago, like other palms, is propagated from the seed or fruit. |
2. a. A species of starch prepared from the ‘pith’ of the trunks of several palms and cycads,
esp. Metroxylon lævis and
M. Rumphii, chiefly used as an article of food.
French s., common arrowroot (
Syd. Soc. Lex. 1897).
Japan s., the sago prepared from various species of
Cycas.
pearl s.,
Portland s.: see the epithets.
| c 1580 Sir F. Drake's Voy. in Hakluyt (1600) III. 740 We receiued of them meale, which they call Sagu, made of the tops of certaine trees..whereof they make certaine cakes. Ibid. 742 Certaine wordes of the naturall language of Iaua... Sagu, bread of the Countrey. 1619 W. Phillip tr. Schouten's Wonderf. Voy. 75 Wee bartered for a great deale of Sagow and some Ryce, for Linnen, Beades [etc.]. 1688 Bramston Autobiog. 381 She tasted and tryed all waters,..and all the opiats, asses milk, and zago, to prevent consumption, but yet was wasted to the lowest degree. 1727 A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. II. xl. 94 The inland People subsist mostly on Sagow. 1747 H. Glasse Cookery 120 To boil Sago. 1755 Gentl. Mag. XXV. 431 He allows chicken broth, salop, seago, milk-pottage, for breakfast. 1806 A. Hunter Culina (ed. 3) 95 Have ready two ounces of sago sufficiently boiled. 1840 Pereira Elem. Mat. Med. ii. 700 This fecula (Japan sago) is quite unknown to me; and I doubt whether it ever reaches this country. 1849 Balfour Man. Bot. §1048 From the stems of Cycas revoluta and circinalis, a kind of Sago is made. 1861 Bentley Man. Bot. 684 Caryota urens... From the trunks of the old trees a kind of Sago is obtained in Assam. 1884 Mary Harrison Skilful Cook 167 Simmer the sago in the milk until it thickens. |
b. A prepared food made by boiling sago in water or milk, etc. ?
Obs.| 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 309 The chief ingredients in gruels, sagos, and wheys. |
| fig. 1769 [E. Thompson] Trinculo's Trip 40 Yes—your pap—poetick sago, Quite a soporifick pill. |
3. attrib. and
Comb.: as
sago † -bread,
sago-cake,
sago-flour,
sago-gruel,
sago milk,
sago-pudding,
sago-starch;
sago-like adj.;
sago-grain,
transf. a granule on the eyelid in granular ophthalmia;
sago-palm (tree) = sense 1;
sago-spleen, amyloid degeneration of the Malpighian corpuscles of the spleen, resembling boiled sago;
sago-tree = sense 1.
| 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage v. xvi. 453 A piece of *Sagu bread. |
| 1779 Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 42 A *sago cake. |
| 1862 O'Neill Dict. Calico Printing 188 Other kinds of starchy substances in occasional use for printing..as..*sago flour—which is not a flour at all, but nearly pure starch. |
| 1873 R. B. Carter in Lancet 20 Dec. 872/1 In technical nomenclature they are known as ‘follicular granulations’, but to-day I will call them ‘*sago grains’. Ibid., The very existence of these ‘sago grains’ remained unknown until the year 1848, when they were discovered by Dr. Löffler. |
| 1764 E. Moxon Eng. Housew. (ed. 9) 136 To make *Sagoo Gruel. 1893 Leland Mem. II. 134, I infinitely prefer the original Icelandic Saga of Frithiof to his sago-gruel imitation of strong soup. |
| 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 159 The solitary glands of the intestine were swelled and *sago-like. |
| 1827 New Syst. Cookery 287 *Sago, Rice,..or Macaroni Milks. |
| 1769 W. Stork in J. Bartram Jrnl. (Florida) (ed. 3) p. v, Cycas Circinalis... *Sago Palm-tree. In Java, and the warmest parts of the East-Indies. 1820 Crawfurd Hist. Ind. Archipelago I. 383 The Sago Palm (Metroxylon sagu). 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. vii. 178 The art of extracting sago from their native sago-palms. |
| 1747 H. Glasse Cookery 106 A *Sagoe Pudding. 1764 E. Moxon Eng. Housew. (ed. 9) 66 A Sagoo Pudding. 1973 ‘D. Jordan’ Nile Green xxiii. 92 A notorious property developer..was spooning sago pudding into his face. |
| 1873 T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2) 70 Amyloid degeneration of the spleen is met with in two forms—one in which the disease is limited to the Malpighian corpuscles (‘*Sago Spleen’), and the other [etc.]. |
| 1681 Grew Musæum iv. iii. 377 The *Sagous-Tree; which those that inhabit the Molucca Islands, eat instead of Bread. 1777 Miller Sumatra in Phil. Trans. LXVIII. 162 The houses..are..thatched with the leaves of the sago-tree. 1840 Pereira Elem. Mat. Med. ii. 700 Cycas revoluta, or the Japan Sago tree. |