gluten

noun

Etymology: From Middle French gluten, borrowed from Latin glūten (“glue”).

1. Fibrin (formerly considered as one of the "animal humours").

   “The Radicall or innate, is dayly ſupplied by nouriſhment, which ſome call Cambium, and make thoſe ſecundary Humors of Ros and Gluten to maintaine it: […]”

2. Any gluey, sticky substance.

   “[T]he Fly suspends it self very firmly and easily, without the access or need of any such Sponges fill'd with an imaginary gluten, as many have, for want of good Glasses, perhaps, or a troublesome and diligent examination, suppos'd.”

   “[H]is nose is running in bubbly gluten over his lips onto his chin […].”

3. The major protein in cereal grains, especially wheat; responsible for the elasticity in dough and the structure in baked bread.

   “Chew on a small piece of dough, and it becomes more compact but persists as a gum-like, elastic mass, the residue that the Chinese named “the muscle of flour” and that we call gluten. It consists mainly of protein, and includes what may well be the largest protein molecules to be found in the natural world.”

   “Unfortunately, wholemeal bread is, according to many experts, a tricky thing to get right, as the lower gluten content of the flour makes for dense results […]”

4. A gluey, sticky mass of clay, bitumen etc.

   “Despite constant rain that turned roads to gluten, the Yankees kept moving.”