Etymology

buttermilk

but·ter·milk
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Today it means: The liquid left over after producing butter from full cream milk by the churning process, also called traditional buttermilk. Full definition →

Middle English butter-melke
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited frombutter-melke
  2. English todaybuttermilk

Inherited from Middle English butter-melke, equivalent to butter + milk. Cognate with Dutch botermelk (“buttermilk”), German Buttermilch (“buttermilk”), Low German Bottermelk (“buttermilk”), Luxembourgish Bottermëllech (“buttermilk”), Plautdietsch Bottamalkj, Bottamaltj, Bottermalkj, Bottermaltj (“buttermilk”), and Yiddish פּוטערמילך (putermilkh), פּוטער־מילעך (puter-milekh, “buttermilk”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.