milk: [OE] Far back into prehistory, milk traces its ancestry to an Indo-European base *melg-, which denoted ‘wiping’ or ‘stroking’. The way of obtaining milk from animals is to pull one’s hand down their teats, and so *melg- came in due course to be used for ‘milk’. It passed into Germanic as *melk-, which formed the basis of the noun *meluks, and this over the centuries has become German milch, Dutch and Danish melk, Swedish mjölk, and English milk.
The now virtually obsolete adjective milch ‘giving milk’ [OE] (as in milch cow) goes back to a Germanic derivative of *meluks. Another derivative of Indo-European *melgwas the Latin verb mulgēre ‘milk’, which has given English emulsion and promulgate. => emulsion, promulgate
milk (n.)
Old English meoluc (West Saxon), milc (Anglian), from Proto-Germanic *meluks "milk" (cognates: Old Norse mjolk, Old Frisian melok, Old Saxon miluk, Dutch melk, Old High German miluh, German Milch, Gothic miluks), from *melk- "to milk," from PIE root *melg- "to wipe, to rub off," also "to stroke; to milk," in reference to the hand motion involved in milking an animal (cognates: Greek amelgein, Latin mulgere, Old Church Slavonic mlesti, Lithuanian melžu "to milk," Old Irish melg "milk," Sanskrit marjati "wipes off"). Old Church Slavonic noun meleko (Russian moloko, Czech mleko) is considered to be adopted from Germanic.
Of milk-like plant juices from late 14c. Milk chocolate is first recorded 1723; milk shake is first recorded 1889, for a variety of creations, but the modern version is only from the 1930s. Milk tooth (1727) uses the word in its figurative sense "period of infancy," attested from 17c. To cry over spilt milk is first attested 1836 in writing of Canadian humorist Thomas C. Haliburton. Milk and honey is from the Old Testament phrase describing the richness of the Promised Land (Num. xvi:13, Old English meolc and hunie). Milk of human kindness is from "Macbeth" (1605).
milk (v.)
Old English melcan, milcian, meolcian "to milk, give milk, suckle," from Proto-Germanic *melk- "to milk" (cognates: Dutch melken, Old High German melchan, German melken), from PIE root *melg- (see milk (n.)). Figurative sense of "exploit for profit" is first found 1520s. Related: Milked; milking.
双语例句
1. As the baby suckles, a further supply of milk is generated.
婴儿吮吸时，会有更多的奶水流出来。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Usually a woman's breasts produce milk spontaneously after the birth.
女性的**通常在产后会自然泌乳。
来自柯林斯例句
3. So many things are unsafe these days—milk, cranberry sauce, what have you.
现如今很多食品都不安全——牛奶、蓝莓酱等等。
来自柯林斯例句
4. She finished putting the milk away and turned around.
她把牛奶收好后转过身来。
来自柯林斯例句
5. Their aim will be to produce as much milk as possible.
