Asklemmy

Counter Rant

I don't understand the insistence in the western Anglophone world that milk automatically means cow's milk.

Coconut milk is a very normal word to say in my mother tongue (Bengali). What else are you even supposed to call it? Coconut "beverage" or "liquid" would be hella confusing because we wouldn't know if one means the milk (the creamy liquid that comes from pressing the coconut pulp) or the water (the transparent liquid that resides in the pulp, and tastes and behaves completely differently). Are we supposed to go invent a new word every time we encounter a milky liquid?

Also, what about other mammalian milks? Do we need to invent a new name for goat milk? (Which is a fairly common drink in India, possibly thanks to Gandhi's obsession with the stuff) What about sheep milk (not very common in India, but widely used in some parts of Europe). Or Yak's Milk? (Pretty popular in specific pockets of India).

Milk is any white creamy liquid. That's how it has always been used, in English and in other languages, going back centuries. The cow agriculture industry must have mounted one hell of a PR campaign to convince western consumes that milk automatically implies it must come from a cow. In India, you just look at the packaging. Does it have a picture of a cow on it? Well then it comes from a cow. Does it have a coconut on it? You guessed it, it comes from a coconut. Simple. I don't see how that can ever be confusing to customers.

Rant over