Sunday Rest: mylk. Word Not To Use Today.

The company Rebel Kitchen has started selling coconut milk drinks under the trade name Mylk.

Well, it's their company, so fair enough. They're welcome to use any honest means they like to persuade me to buy the stuff. Calling it mylk isn't going to work with me - quite the reverse - but, hey, there might be millions of people out there who find the word mylk funny or endearing. I suppose there must be, because the word isn't confined to Rebel Kitchen; it's now being used throughout the English-speaking world to describe plant-based milks. 

Supporters of the word point out that the spelling mylk was used in Middle English - but it wasn't used in Middle English to mean specifically plant-based milk, so, actually, that's not a very convincing argument.

Supporters also argue that the different spelling is helpful in distinguishing it from animal-sourced milks, and that it prevents lawsuits about just what is in your milk drink. This is actually true in both cases, though the only lawsuit I know of (one in the USA) was unsuccessful; and the word milk has long been used for plant-based milk-type things (for example the plant the milk thistle is so called because it exudes a milk-like substance from its cut stalk) without any vegan being lured into desecrating the temple of his or her body.

(Not that I've got anything against vegans. They're good for the planet and they're very welcome to eat what they like.)

But despite the valid arguments in favour of the word mylk, the word is horrible, It's sweet and twee enough to make any right-minded person nauseated.

And, after all, there's nothing, but nothing, wrong with milk.

Word Not To Use Today: mylk. The common Old English spelling was milc, which is less sugary than mylk but probably just as annoying, so please don't tell anyone.