Lait

/leɪ/ noun

Definition

Milk, particularly used in French culinary contexts (as in 'café au lait').

Etymology

From Old French 'lait,' from Latin 'lactis,' the Indo-European root for milk that appears in 'lactose' and 'lactic,' unchanged since Roman times.

Kelly Says

The French word 'lait' reveals how Latin roots stayed perfectly preserved in French while English borrowed so heavily from French that we rarely use their words for basic items—we say 'milk,' not 'lait.'

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