Milkmaid Explained
A milkmaid, milk maid, milkwoman, dairymaid, or dairywoman is a girl or woman who works with milk or cows.[1]
She milks cows and also uses the milk to prepare dairy products such as cream, butter, and cheese. Many large houses employ milkmaids instead of having other staff do the work. The term milkmaid is not the female equivalent of milkman in the sense of one who delivers milk to the consumer; it is the female equivalent of milkman in the sense of cowman or dairyman.[2]
In 1600s-1800s English "milkmaids" sold milk wearing a yoke holding two milk pails and vending vessels, and also decorated themselves for the London May Day procession.[3] [4]
Cowpox
As a result of exposure to cowpox, which conveys a partial immunity to the disfiguring (and often fatal) disease smallpox, it was noticed that milkmaids lacked the scarred, pockmarked complexion common to smallpox survivors. This observation led to the development of the first vaccine.[5]
Cultural references
See also
Notes and References
- Encyclopedia: Dairymaids . subscription . The Oxford Companion to Cheese . 2017 . 10.1093/acref/9780199330881.013.0270 . 978-0-19-933088-1 . Jessica A. B. . Galen . Oxford University Press . 1st . 1 November 2024 . 2022-12-23.
- Hough . Carole . Middle English Deye in a Fifteenth-Century Cookery Book . Neuphilologische Mitteilungen . 102 . 3 . 2001 . 303–305 . 43344800 . The standard edition of the cookbook glosses deye as 'dairymaid', and indeed the term is otherwise recorded as a simplex in Middle English only with this meaning or the masculine equivalent 'dairyman'..
- Web site: Hammerstrom . Kirsten . Blame the Milk Maid . Kitty Calash . 5 November 2024 . en . 7 February 2013.
- Book: Judge, Roy . The Jack in the Green, a May Day Custom . 1979 . D S Brewer . 0-85991-029-6 . registration .
- Book: Judge, Roy . The Jack-in-the-Green: A May Day Custom . London . The Folklore Society Books . 2000 . second . 0-903515-20-2.
- Stern. Alexandra Minna. Howard Markel. Howard Markel. The History Of Vaccines And Immunization: Familiar Patterns, New Challenges . Health Affairs. 2005. 24. 3. 611–621. 10.1377/hlthaff.24.3.611. 25 December 2010. 15886151.
- Web site: '12 days of Christmas' cost: How much is a partridge in a pear tree? . The Christian Science Monitor . November 26, 2012 . 8 May 2014 . The Associated Press.