The story
- Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*(s)meld-“to beat, grind, crush, weaken”
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*meltǭ“spleen”
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*miltijā
- Old English · inherited frommilte
- Middle English · inherited frommilte
- English todaymilt
From Middle English milte, from Old English milte, milt (“milt, spleen”), from Proto-West Germanic *miltijā, *meltā, from Proto-Germanic *meltǭ (“spleen”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld- (“to beat, grind, crush, weaken”). Cognate with German Milz, Dutch milt, Danish milt, Norwegian milt, Swedish mjälte. Outside Germanic, with Albanian mëlçi (“liver”) and Italian milza (“spleen”), which is a borrowing from Lombardic.
Words from the same roots
Proto-Indo-European*(s)meld- all →
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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.