WotD: whey

[muckefuck]

1. die Molke, das Käsewasser
2. de wei
3. el suero de leche
4. el sèrum de llet, el xerigot
5. le petit-lait
6. y maidd
7. an meadhg
8. serwatka
9. 유청 (乳清), 유장 (乳漿)
10. 乳清 rǔqīng

Notes: As with the previous entry, I'm fascinated with the proliferation of roots here. For "milk", we have basically three: PIE *melg-, PIE *ǵlákts, and MC *ɲuə̆'. "Cheese" would be about the same, with the majority of languages showing reflexes of Latin caseus (including Korean and colloquial Chinese).

But when it comes to the main by-product of cheese production, the roots almost double. German uses an ablaut variation of the *melg- stem, Dutch and English share derivatives of Common German *hwajan, popular Catalan and Spanish have a pre-IE root contaminated with Latin serum (which itself may share a PIE source with Polish), the popular French word can also mean "buttermilk" (more commonly babeurre or lait de beurre in Louisiana), and Welsh and Irish share Proto-Celtic *mesgā.

Until I looked into the subject, I never realised there were two kinds of whey: "sweet whey", the byproduct of using rennet to induce curdling, and "sour whey", which comes from using an acid. Or that, like buttermilk, it was once a common refreshment, often mixed with wine.