Etymology: Apparently a variant of milk n.¹, after milch adj. and milch v. Compare milchy adj.The present word could perhaps alternatively be explained as showing a continuation of Old English milc with palatalization of the final consonant before an i- suffix, although the chronological gap perhaps makes this less likely. It is uncertain whether the following isolated Middle English example shows continuity with the examples below (compare also milch n.²): ▸ 1440 Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 337 Mylche, or mylke of a cowe, Lac.

Etymology: Apparently a variant of milk n.¹ (see sense 4a s.v.); compare milch n.¹ and milt n.It is uncertain whether the following isolated Middle English example, apparently showing mylche in the sense of milt n. 1a and milt n. 2, shows any continuity with the examples below (compare also milch n.¹): ▸ 1440 Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 337 Mylche, or mylte: Splen, lactis, proprie mylche.

Etymology: Immediate origin uncertain; apparently ultimately < the same Germanic base as either milk v. or milk n.¹ The Middle English word is perhaps a continuation of Old English melc (see below), or perhaps < (or influenced by) Old English -milce in Þrimilce the month of May, probably use as noun of an unattested adjective *þrimilce , lit. ‘having three milkings (a day)’ < þri- , combining form of þrīe three adj. and n. + milce , a derivative of milk n.¹Old English melc is cognate with West Frisian melk , Middle Dutch melk , Middle Low German melk , Old High German melc (Middle High German melch , German (archaic) melk ), probably < the Germanic base of Old English melcan (see milk v.). (There is no evidence for the Old English form meolc recorded in N.E.D. and Bosworth-Toller s.vv.) For examples of the Old English word compare:eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker Lat.-Old Eng. Gloss. in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 197 Fætas, melce andtydrende. Foetus, melc.OE Old Eng. Martyrol. (Julius) 15 Sept. 209 Ða geseah se Godes þeow wilde hinde melce; þa gesenode he hi. Ða gestod heo ond se geþyrsta mon meolcode ða hinde ond dranc þa meolc.OE Antwerp Gloss. (1955) 172 Ubera, melcebreost.OE tr. Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarium (Vitell.) (1984) xix. 64 Wið titta sar wifa þe beoð melce & toðundene. Forms in -e- could be explained as continuations of this Old English adjective, if it is assumed that palatalization of final c after l preceded by a front vowel has occurred here (compare A. Campbell Old Eng. Gram. (1959) §428 note 1). Forms with -i- could perhaps be explained as showing the reflex of this word with sporadic interchange of e and i before l , or could alternatively be explained as either independently from or influenced by the second element of Þrimilce , or again as showing influence of milk n.¹ or milk v. The spelling in quot. c1300 at sense 1a is difficult to account for. The parallel formation represented by Old Icelandic mjólkr , Norwegian (Nynorsk) mjølk , in the same sense, is apparently < the Germanic base of milk n.¹; compare the parallel Old Icelandic milkr from the same base with Germanic mutation of e to i before a j-suffix. The word is apparently attested early in place names, as Melceburne (1086; now Melchbourne, Bedfordshire).

Etymology: Apparently variant of milk v. after milch adj.Probably not a reflex of Old English mylcian , milcian (see milk v.), given the chronological gap.