melc

From Old Dutch miloc, from Proto-Germanic *meluks, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ-.

melc f or n

1. milk

• Dutch: melk
  • Afrikaans: melk
  • Berbice Creole Dutch: meleke
  • Jersey Dutch: määlk
  • Negerhollands: melk
  • → Aukan: meliki
  • → Caribbean Javanese: mèleg, mèrki
  • → Munsee: mălák
  • → Saramaccan: meíki
  • → Sranan Tongo: merki
    • → Kari'na: meliki
  • → Tok Pisin: melek
• Limburgish: mèlk

• “melc (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “melc (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

• meolc, *milċe

From Proto-Germanic *melkaz. As with melcan, the monophthong is inherited; the alternative form meolc has its diphthong leveled in from the noun.

• IPA^(key): /melk/,

melc

1. giving milk

• Middle English: milch, melch (both ← *milċe)
  • English: milch

Unknown. Possibly a substrate word from Dacian, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mel- (“soft, weak, tender”). Compare Breton melc’hwed (“snails”), Welsh malwod (“snails”), Latin mollis (“soft”), Old Armenian մեղկ (mełk, “soft, weak”). Another theory starts with the variant form melciu, which may possibly be derived from Serbian (i)mèla (“mistletoe”), with diminutive suffix -če and the meaning becoming "slimy, viscous". Other less likely ideas proposed include a substrate root *miliku or *kadmiliku, linked to Albanian kërmill (“snail”), këthmili, or from a Vulgar Latin *milax, metathetic modification of Latin limax (“slug, snail”), or a relation to the root of Latin murex, or a borrowing from Bulgarian мелък (melǎk). See also culbec.

• IPA^(key): /melk/

melc m (plural melci)

1. snail, slug

• culbec, bourel (regional)

• limax