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Usually explained as a borrowing from a Germanic language due to the voiceless centum reflex of the Proto-Indo-European palatovelar */ǵ/; compare the Proto-Germanic root noun *meluks ‎(milk), itself from Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ- ‎(to milk).

However, the Early Proto-Slavic form *melka- (> Late Proto-Slavic *melko) formally presents difficulties, because Slavic shows no trace of the *u in the Germanic second syllable. This would require an intermediary language that would drop the medial *-u- from Proto-Germanic word and thematicize the stem. In High German, forms lacking the second root syllable are attested only from Middle High German onwards, which is too late for it to be the donor of the Proto-Slavic form.

Other theories include:

  • According to Valentin Kiparsky the Proto-Slavic *melko ‎(milk) is completely separate from the reflexes of Proto-Germanic *meluks ‎(milk), and instead derives from Proto-Slavic *molka (> Serbo-Croatian mlȁka/мла̏ка ‎(pool, puddle), Old East Slavic молокита ‎(molokita, swamp)). This etymology has been criticized as semantically far-fetched.


The same Proto-Indo-European root regularly gave Proto-Slavic *mьlsti ‎(to milk), with a stem-final sibilant */s/. From the same Indo-European root are also Latin mulgeō, Ancient Greek ἀμέλγω ‎(amélgō), Lithuanian mélžti, Welsh blith, Tocharian A malke.


*melko̍ n

  1. milk


Accent paradigm b.