In their roots, both milk and dairy recall the physical effort it once took to obtain milk
and transform it by hand. Milk comes from an Indo-European root that meant both
“milk” and “to rub off,” the connection perhaps being the stroking necessary to
squeeze milk from the teat. In medieval times, dairy was originally dey-ery, meaning the
room in which the dey, or woman servant, made milk into butter and cheese. Dey in
turn came from a root meaning “to knead bread” (lady shares this root)—perhaps a
reflection not only of the servant’s several duties, but also of the kneading required to
squeeze buttermilk out of butter (p. 34) and sometimes the whey out of cheese.