mulge

Forms

mulge (first-person singular present mulg, third-person subjunctive mulgă, past participle muls), 3rd conjugation^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mulgeō (“to milk”).^{[3][2][4][5][6]} DER and Wiktionary derive it from the popular infinitive of the third conjugation, *mulgĕre, which replaced the classical second-conjugation infinitive.^[3][1] DER cites Densusianu, Pușcariu, Candrea–Densusianu and the REW for it.^[3][1][7] Nocentini also traces Old French, Sardinian and Romanian to that infinitive, and Occitan, Catalan and Portuguese to the classical one.^[8]

The verb survives in all four branches: Aromanian mulgu, Megleno-Romanian mulg and Istro-Romanian munje.^{[3][9][10][6]} Romance cognates include Italian mungere, Old French moudre (“to milk”), Occitan molzer, Catalan munyir and Portuguese mungir.^[3][7]

The Latin verb is an old iterative from Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ- (“to milk”), cognate with Ancient Greek ἀμέλγω (amélgō), Albanian mjel and English milk.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record of the verb is a 16th-century psalter (Psalm 77:71), and the participle noun mulgătoare “milking ewes” is in Psalm 77 of the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (early 16th century) and of Coresi's psalters of 1570 to 1589.^[6][12] MDA2's first record is the Moldavian law code of Vasile Lupu's time, where a shepherd „mulgând oile stăpânu-său furiș” “milking his master's sheep in secret” loses his wages.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 and the other 17th-century lexicons give it for Slavonic мельзи млеко “milk the milk”, and the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has it in Proverbs 30:33.^[13][14] The figurative sense “to exploit someone, bleed someone dry” is old in the phrase vacă de muls “a milch cow”, which Creangă uses of a person others profit from.^[6][4][2] Regionally a nursing woman also milks her own breasts, and the reflexive is said of children who wet themselves.^[5]

The verb has a large pastoral family: mulgător “milker”, muls and mulsoare “milking”, mulsură “milking; the milk of one milking”.^[3] DER also names mulzare “milch ewe”, crossed with mânzare;^[15] Candrea–Densusianu took the Banat and Aromanian forms of that word from Serbo-Croatian.^[3][15]

Timeline

• 16th century – first record of the verb, in a psalter; the derivative mulgătoare is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (early 16th century).^[6][12]
• 1649 – Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1673 – mulgă in Dosoftei's verse psalter: „De după turmă să nu mai mulgă” “that he should milk no more behind the flock”.^[4]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible, Proverbs 30:33.^[14]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives the figurative senses “to suck, exhaust”.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To milk an animal, by hand or by machine: mașină de muls “milking machine”.^[2][1]
2. (figurative) To profit from someone or something, to exploit: vacă bună de muls “a milch cow”, a person or situation that can be bled for gain;^[2][5] a mulge oaia din zbor “to know how to take advantage of an opportunity”.^[2][5]
3. (regional) Of a nursing woman, to express milk from the breasts.^[5]
4. (regional, reflexive) Of children, to urinate.^[5]

Word family

• mulgător
• muls
• mulsoare
• mulgere
• mulsură

Related words

• smulge
• Aromanian mulgu
• Latin mulgeō

Usage notes

The compound mulge-capre, literally “goat-milker”, is a popular name of the lipitoare “leech”.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 680
3. ^ a b c d e f g Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. mulge
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mulge
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 73
6. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mulge
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5729
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 710
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 197
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 77:76
13. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. mulge
14. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Prov 30:33
15. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. mulge
16. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 452