melg-

To rub off; also to milk. Oldest form *melg̑-, becoming *melg- in centum languages.

I.

1. Zero-grade form *ml̥g-. emulsion, from Latin mulgēre, to milk.

2. Full-grade form *melg-.

a. milk, from Old English meolc, milc;

b. milch, from Old English -milce, milch, from Germanic suffixed form *meluk-ja-, giving milk;

c. milchig, from Old High German miluh, milk. a-c all from Germanic *melkan, to milk, contaminated with an unrelated noun for milk, cognate with the Greek and Latin forms given in II below, to form the blend *meluk-.

II. Included here to mark the unexplained fact that no common Indo-European noun for milk can be reconstructed is another root *g(a)lag-, *g(a)lakt-, milk, found only in:

a. galactic, galacto-, galaxy; agalactia, polygala, from Greek gala (stem galakt-), milk;

b. lactate, lacteal, lactescent, lacto-, latte, lettuce, from Latin lac, milk;

c. the blended Germanic form cited in I. 2. above.

 

[Pokorny mē̆lg̑- 722, glag- 400.]

* * *