Germanische und slavische Bezeichnungen für ‘Milch’ und ‘melken’
The Germanic and Slavonic words for ‘milk’ and ‘to milk’

Summary/Abstract: A hypothesis has been proposed stating that the Germanic words with the meaning ‘milk’ and ‘to milk’ go back to IE root *mel- ‘to crush, to squash’, ‘to spread, to smear’. This root could have generated two semantic derivatives, namely, ‘to spill; wet, moist’ and ‘to rub, to stroke’ to which the meanings ‘milk’ and ‘to milk’ go back. The Germanic *mel-uk- ‘milk’ might be a compound word, the second component o which *au eg-/ug- has the meaning ‘to increase, to add’.

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