An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Milch

by Friedrich Kluge

Milch, feminine, from the equivalent Middle High German milch, Old High German miluh, feminine, ‘milk’; the common Teutonic term for ‘milk’; compare Gothic miluks. feminine, Old Icelandic mjólkr, feminine, Anglo-Saxon meoluc, milc, feminine, English milk, Dutch melk, Old Saxon miluk. The direct connection of the Teutonic cognates. with the root melk in melken is indubitable. It is remarkable, however, that a common Aryan, or at least a West Aryan term for ‘milk’ is wanting, although the root melg, Teutonic melk, ‘to milk,’ occurs in all the West Aryan languages. Greek γάλα (stem γάλακτ-), Latin lac (stem lact-), cannot be connected with the root melg, and Old Slovenian mlěko (from *melko) with its Slavonic cognates must have been borrowed from the Old Teutonic word, since in a primitively allied word we should have expected a g instead of the k.