Indo-European Lexicon
PIE Etymon and IE Reflexes
Below we display: a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) etymon adapted from Pokorny, with our own English gloss; our Semantic Field assignment(s) for the etymon, linked to information about the field(s); an optional Comment; and Reflexes (derived words) in various Indo-European languages, organized by family/group in west-to-east order where Germanic is split into West/North/East families and English, our language of primary emphasis, is artificially separated from West Germanic. IE Reflexes appear most often as single words with any optional letter(s) enclosed in parentheses; but alternative full spellings are separated by '/' and "principal parts" appear in a standard order (e.g. masculine, feminine, and neuter forms) separated by commas.
Reflexes are annotated with: Part-of-Speech and/or other Grammatical feature(s); a short Gloss which, especially for modern English reflexes, may be confined to the oldest sense; and some Source citation(s) with 'LRC' always understood as editor. Keys to PoS/Gram feature abbreviations and Source codes appear below the reflexes; at the end are links to the previous/next etyma [in Pokorny's alphabetic order] that have reflexes.
All reflex pages are currently under active construction; as time goes on, corrections may be made and/or more etyma & reflexes may be added.
Pokorny Etymon: mē̆lg̑-, or meləg̑-? 'to milk, pluck, wipe off'
Semantic Field(s): to Milk
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celtic | ||||
| Old Irish: | bō-milge | n | cow's milk | GED |
| mlicht | n | milk | GED | |
| mligim | vb | to milk | GED | |
| Middle Irish: | blicht | n | milk | LRC |
| bligim | vb | to milk | LRC | |
| Welsh: | blith | n | milk | LRC |
| English | ||||
| Old English: | me(o)lcan | vb.str | to milk | GED/W7 |
| meol(u)c | n.fem | milk | ASD/W7 | |
| milc, mioluc | n.fem | milk | GED | |
| -milce | sfx | milch | W7 | |
| þri-milce | n.masc | May, lit. three-milkings (month) | ASD | |
| Middle English: | milche | adj | milch | W7 |
| milk | n | milk | W7 | |
| English: | emulsion | n | liquid dispersed in immiscible liquid | AHD/W7 |
| milch | adj | milk-giving | AHD/W7 | |
| milchig | adj | from milk/dairy products | AHD | |
| milk | n | fluid secreted by mammary gland of female mammal | AHD/W7 | |
| milk | vb | to draw/yield milk from breast/udder | W7 | |
| Thrimidge, Thrimi(l)ch | prop.n | Shire calendar's May in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings | LRC | |
| West Germanic | ||||
| Old Frisian: | melka | vb.str | to milk | GED |
| melok | n.fem | milk | GED | |
| Old Saxon: | miluk | n.fem | milk | GED |
| Old High German: | melchan | vb.str | to milk | GED |
| miluh | n.str.fem | milk | GED | |
| Middle High German: | milkh | n | milk | AHD |
| German: | melken | vb | to milk | LRC |
| Milch | n.fem | milk | LRC | |
| Yiddish: | milkh | n | milk | AHD |
| milkhik | adj | milchig | AHD | |
| North Germanic | ||||
| Old Icelandic: | mjaltir | n.fem.pl | whey | GED |
| mjaltr | adj | milch | LRC | |
| mjǫlk | n.fem | milk | GED | |
| molka | vb.wk | to milk | GED | |
| Icelandic: | mjólkr | n | milk | ASD |
| East Germanic | ||||
| Gothic: | *miluks | n.fem | milk | GED |
| Italic | ||||
| Latin: | ēmulgeō, ēmulgēre, ēmūlsī, ēmūlsus | vb | to milk out | W7 |
| melca | n.fem | milk | GED | |
| mulgeo, mulgēre | vb | to milk | W7 | |
| New Latin: | emulsio | n.fem | a milking out | W7 |
| Baltic | ||||
| Lithuanian: | mal̃kas | n | gulp | GED |
| mélžti | vb | to milk | GED | |
| mìlžti | vb | to milk | LRC | |
| Slavic | ||||
| Old Polish: | młost | n | milk can | GED |
| Polish: | mleko | n | milk | GED |
| Serbo-Croatian: | mlâz | n | jet of milk | LRC |
| Old Church Slavonic: | *melko | n | milk | GED |
| mlĕsti | vb | to milk | GED | |
| Russian: | moloko | n | milk | GED |
| molost | n | milk-time | GED | |
| Albanian | ||||
| Albanian: | mjel | vb | to milk | GED |
| Hellenic | ||||
| Homeric Greek: | ἀμέλγω | vb | to milk | LRC |
| Greek: | ἀμέλγω | vb | to draw, pull | GED |
| μέλκα | n | herbed/spiced sour milk | GED | |
| Indic | ||||
| Sanskrit: | māršṭi | vb | to wipe, rub off | LRC |
| Tocharian | ||||
| Tocharian: | malk- | vb | to milk | GED |
| Tocharian B: | malkwer | n | milk | GED |
| Tocharian A: | malke | n | milk | GED |
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| adj | = | adjective |
| fem | = | feminine (gender) |
| masc | = | masculine (gender) |
| n | = | noun |
| pl | = | plural (number) |
| prop | = | proper |
| sfx | = | suffix |
| str | = | strong (inflection) |
| vb | = | verb |
| wk | = | weak (inflection) |
Key to information Source codes (always with 'LRC' as editor):
| Code | Citation | |
|---|---|---|
| AHD | = | Calvert Watkins: The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, 2nd ed. (2000) |
| ASD | = | Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller: An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (1898) |
| GED | = | Winfred P. Lehmann: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986) |
| LRC | = | Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin |
| W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |