melken

From Middle Dutch melken, from Old Dutch *melkan, from Proto-Germanic *melkaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ-.

• IPA^(key): /mɛlkə(n)/

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melken

1. to milk

• melk

From Old High German melchan, from Proto-Germanic *melkaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ-. The consonantism -lk- is regular High German. The difference between melken and Milch is due to the fact that the latter used to have a short vowel after -l- (Old High German miluh). Compare Dutch melken, English milk, Danish malke, Norwegian mjølke.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛlkən/, [ˈmɛlkən], [ˈmɛlkŋ̩]

• Audio

  (file)

melken (melkt or, milkt past tense, melkte or, molk past participle, gemelkt or, gemolken past subjunctive, melkte or, mölke auxiliary, haben)

1. (transitive) to milk (a cow, goat etc.)
2. (transitive, figuratively) to drain; to draw from (someone or something), especially without consent; to milk (someone) for money, information, etc.

Weak

Strong

• Melken has full sets of both strong and weak forms, both being accepted as standard. The past participle gemolken is considerably more common than gemelkt. Otherwise there is possibly a tendency to prefer the strong forms in the northern half of the German Sprachraum and the weak forms in the southern half.

• Melkkuh

• Milch f
• Molkerei f

• melken in Duden online

From Old Dutch *melkan, from Proto-Germanic *melkaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ-.

melken

1. to milk
2. to draw in, to pull
3. to lure

• Dutch: melken
• Limburgish: mèlke

• “melken”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “melken”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

• melka

melken m or f

1. definite masculine singular of melk