glacial milk
- noun
- /ˈɡleɪʃəl mɪlk/
- Specialized
:
leche glacial
- Hikers noticed the river's turquoise color, a result of suspended particles in glacial milk.
Examples
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The river was filled with glacial milk from the melting glaciers.
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The stream was filled with glacial milk, giving it a cloudy, pale appearance.
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Scientists collected samples of glacial milk to study the sediment content from retreating glaciers.
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Have you ever seen glacial milks flowing down the mountains?
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The river was filled with glacial milk after the last storm, making the water look cloudy and light blue.
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Hiking to the glacier, we marveled at the glacial milk flowing down the hillside, carrying with it fine particles of rock.
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During the summer, the glacial milk from the melting glaciers turns the lakes a beautiful shade of turquoise.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: 'glacial' (relating to glaciers) combined with 'milk' (describing a milky appearance) yields the idea of milky meltwater from glaciers. The use of 'milk' here is an obvious metaphor for color/consistency rather than a literal dairy product, a pattern learners can readily infer from the constituents and from comparable expressions in other languages.
Etymology
Glacial milk comes from the milky look of water that flows from glaciers. Melting ice carries very fine rock dust called 'rock flour', which makes the water cloudy, so glacial + milk describes 'cloudy meltwater with fine particles'.
