milt
noun
- fish seminal fluid and genitalia
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /mɪlt/
noun
Etymology: 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.
- The spleen, especially of an animal bred for food.
“we see that certaine apprehensions engender a blushing-red colour, others a palenesse; that some imagination doth only worke in the milt, another in the braine[…].”
“Cancer, or the Crab, commandeth the Stomach, Limbs, Arteries, Milt, Liver and Gall.”
- The semen of a male fish.
- The engorged testis containing a filled reservoir of mature spermatozoa in a male fish.
verb
Etymology: 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.
- To impregnate (the roe of a fish) with milt.