milk-sick

9.9

Sick after eating meat or drinking milk from animals that eat poisonous plants

adjective
/mɪlk sɪk/

Archaic

: enfermo por leche

The veterinarian diagnosed the cow as milk-sick due to grazing on poisonous plants.

Examples

Historical accounts mention entire communities falling milk-sick during certain seasons.
Several settlers became milk-sick after drinking contaminated milk from local cows.
The farmer's family became milk-sick after drinking contaminated milk.
Many settlers in the 19th century suffered from milk-sick due to poor farming practices.
After drinking the contaminated milk, she felt very milk-sick and had to stay in bed all day.
The farmer warned his family to avoid the milk, as it could make them milk-sick if the cattle grazed near white snakeroot.
Many pioneers suffered from milk-sick sickness after consuming tainted dairy products in the new territory.

Surface Forms

milk-sick positive

Morphology

milk-sick = milk + sick (transparent) = milk + sick

The compound directly denotes being ill because of milk or milk-related contamination, a meaning an average B1 learner can infer from the parts.

Etymology

Milk-sick is made of two clear parts, milk and sick, so a helpful way to remember it is 'ill from milk'. It was used for people or animals who became sick after drinking milk from cows that had eaten a poisonous plant, so the name tells the cause of the illness.