From PIE *h2melg- (to stroke the udder) — a relic of the pastoral economy that defined early Indo-European life.
An opaque white fluid produced by female mammals to nourish their young, widely consumed by humans as a drink and used to make dairy products.
From Old English 'meoluc' or 'milc' (milk, liquid secreted by female mammals), from Proto-Germanic *meluks (milk), from PIE *h₂melǵ- (to milk, to stroke). The PIE root *h₂melǵ- described the physical act of milking — the rhythmic stroking or pressing of an udder — and the noun for the liquid developed secondarily from the verb. This root produced Latin 'mulgēre' (to milk), Greek 'amélgein' (to milk, to draw
The word 'galaxy' comes from Greek 'galaxías' (milky), from 'gála' (milk) — the Milky Way was literally the 'milky circle.' While 'galaxy' and 'milk' come from different PIE roots, the connection between milk and the cosmos is one of the oldest metaphors in human language, shared across Indo-European cultures.