What does fecula mean?
Fecula is a technical term for a fine, starchy substance extracted from plant material — typically potatoes, arrowroot, wheat, or other roots and seeds — by grating or crushing the tissue and washing away impurities until the pure starch settles. In cooking and food processing, feculas serve as thickeners and binders, with arrowroot fecula especially valued for producing clear, glossy sauces. A secondary, now largely obsolete sense refers to any dregs or sediment that settles from a liquid. Derived from Latin faex, meaning "dregs," the word entered English usage around the seventeenth century and shares its origin with terms like "feculent" and "defecate." Today fecula appears mainly in food science, pharmacy, and historical texts rather than casual speech, making it a precise and useful label where ordinary words like "starch" would be less exact.
A fine starchy substance extracted from plant material such as potatoes, arrowroot, or wheat by washing and settling.
"The recipe calls for two tablespoons of potato fecula to thicken the fruit filling."
Common in food science, pharmacy, and historical texts; rarely used informally.
Sediment or dregs that settle from a liquid.
"A dark fecula collected at the base of the old wine cask."
This sense is now largely archaic, supplanted by "sediment" and "dregs."
The Latin-style plural "feculae" appears occasionally in scientific writing; "feculas" is also accepted. In practice the word is usually treated as uncountable when referring to the starch itself.
"Early chemical treatises catalogued the feculae of various tubers side by side."
The same Latin word for 'dregs' gave English both a kitchen starch and the word 'defecate' — context is everything.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of fecula
Fecula derives from Latin faex (stem faec-), meaning "dregs" or "lees," via the New Latin diminutive form fecula. It entered English in the early seventeenth century, initially referring to dregs or sediment before narrowing to denote refined plant starch. The same root gives English "faecal," "feculent," and "defecate," all of which preserve the ancient association with settled waste matter.
Related word forms
How fecula is actually used
"Fecula" is a technical term, encountered chiefly in older scientific writing, food manufacturing, pharmacy, and historical cookery texts; it sounds formal or even archaic in everyday conversation. The sediment sense is now rare, largely displaced by words like "dregs" or "sediment."
Easily confused with fecula
Faecal refers to bodily waste matter, whereas fecula denotes harmless plant starch or sediment; both descend from the same Latin root faex but have entirely different modern meanings.