milt

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English milte,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English milte (“spleen”),^[2][5][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *meltǭ.^[1][8] It is cognate with Old Frisian milte, Middle Dutch milte (modern milt, spleen, and regionally milt of fish), Old Saxon milti, Old High German milzi (modern Milz), Old Norse milti, Swedish mjälte and Danish milt, all meaning "spleen".^[5][2][9][6] The Germanic base is probably either from the Indo-European base of melt, with reference to the supposed digestive function of the spleen, or from an extended form of the base of milk, with reference to the milky-white colour of its lymphoid follicles.^[5] Etymonline takes it as possibly from Proto-Indo-European *mel- (“soft”),^[2] Barnhart from *meld- (“soft”),^[9] and Klein takes *meld- as an enlargement of a base meaning "to rub, grind", so that the organ would be "the softening gland".^[4] The sense "soft roe of a male fish" may have been adopted from Middle Dutch, although the Dutch sense is recorded later than the English one;^[5] the American Heritage Dictionary takes the word as partly from the Middle Dutch word and partly from the Old English one,^[10] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins take the fish sense as probably Dutch.^[11][12] The OED thinks the extension natural, since milt is soft like the spleen, and helped by its likeness in sound to milk, used earlier in the same sense;^[5] Weekley also notes that milk was the earlier word for the roe and was confused with milt.^[13] The verb is from the noun.^[5][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The spleen: the Old English word is found in the early Épinal Glossary, spelt milti,^[7][5] and in the medical texts, for example "se milte biþ emlang ðære wambe", the spleen is alongside the stomach.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the spleen was taken to be the source of milt in fish and frogs (before 1398) and was called a spermatic member (1392), according to Barnhart, who thinks the fish sense developed from this.^[9] The sense "semen or testes of a male fish" is first recorded in 1483, in Caxton's translation of the Golden Legend.^[5][9][2] The spleen sense survives, now chiefly of animals reared for food;^[5][15] from 1587 milt was also a small lump of spleen-like tissue on the tongue of a newborn foal.^[5] Johnson (1755) gave the fish sense first, quoting Walton's Angler with the form melt, and also had the verb "to impregnate the roe or spawn of the female fish".^[14] The verb is first recorded in 1694, in Motteux's Rabelais, of a male fish emitting milt.^[5] In the dialects of Scotland, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lincolnshire and the South-West, milt or melt was the spleen, mostly of animals, and in Scotland, the Lake District and Yorkshire a milt was a male fish, a milter.^[16]

Timeline

• Old English – the spleen.^[5][7]
• 1483 – the semen or testes of a male fish.^[5][9]
• 1587 – a small lump of spleen-like tissue on a newborn foal's tongue.^[5]
• 1694 – verb, of a male fish, to emit milt.^[5]
• 1755 – verb, to fertilize the roe of a female fish.^[14] The OED's only record of this sense is from 1884.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The semen of a male fish, the sperm with the fluid containing them.^[12][11][5]
2. The testes of a male fish, especially when filled with this fluid in the breeding season.^[12][11][5]
3. The spleen, especially of a pig, fowl or other animal raised for food: The butcher sold the milt with the liver.^[12][5][15]

Verb

1. To fertilize the roe of a female fish with milt, especially artificially.^[12][11]
2. Of a male fish, to discharge milt.^[5]

Word family

• milter

Related words

• melt
• milk
• mild

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)