Milks - update

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 10:43:36AM BB wrote:
>
> According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond_milk, almond milk is
> made from ground almonds. Similarly,
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp_milk says that hemp milk or hemp
> seed milk is made from ground hemp seeds.
>
> The OED has "almond-milk" (time to drop the hyphen, perhaps), but no
> definition. Looking at the relevant definition of milk, it seems a
> little out-of-date:
>
> -----
> A milky juice or latex present in the stems or other parts of various
> plants, which exudes when the plant is cut, and is often acrid,
> irritant, or toxic. Also: spec. the drinkable watery liquid found in
> the hollow space inside the fruit of the coconut.
> -----
>
> Probably the most common substitute milks for coffee lattes are soy
> and rice. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soy_milk, soy milk
> is made by grinding, and according to
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_milk, rice milk is made by pressing.

If you keep moving down to sense 5.a., you'll get what is actually the
relevant definition here: "A culinary, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, or
other preparation resembling milk, esp. in colour. Usually with the
principal ingredient or use specified by a preceding or following word."
This is followed by cross-references to _soya milk_ (not, at the moment,
_soy milk_), _almond milk_ (which is, indeed, extremely out of date,
though it is currently under revision, and has a detailed definition and
a good quotation paragraph) and _rice milk_.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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