a beautiful word for raw milk?

[Guest guest]

A few years back, the coordinator/director for every farmers market in

Massachusetts had an absolutely furious response at me for mentioning the words

" raw milk. " It is so strange to see so many people get offended at the mention

of raw milk. So basic and pure, how could it have such a negative connotation

to so many?!

Below are some listings for the word " raw " off the web. The majority of the

listings could be interpreted as " raw " being a negative property.

There are nice words in other languages for specifically, raw meat. Sashimi.

Carpaccio. Beautiful!

What if a beautiful word was coined for raw milk? Maybe there already is one?

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Merriam-Webster Online Thesaurus

Entry Word: raw

Function: adjective

Text: 1 not cooked <you should wash your hands after handling raw chicken>

Synonyms uncooked

Related Words unbaked, unheated; rare; underdone

Near Antonyms well-done; overdone; baked, boiled, braised, broiled, fried,

grilled, heated, roasted, sautéed

Antonyms cooked

2 being such as found in nature and not altered by processing or refining <raw

sugar is honey-colored because the crystals retain cane juices, minerals, and

other impurities that haven't been refined out> -- see CRUDE 1

3 lacking in adult experience or maturity <recruiters like to say the military

turns raw youths into responsible men and women> -- see CALLOW

4 marked by wet and windy conditions <the day of the funeral was one of those

bleak, blustery, raw winter days that was as gloomy as our spirits> -- see FOUL

1

5 uncomfortably cool <evenings in those mountains, even during the summer, tend

to be a little raw> -- see CHILLY 1

6 causing intense discomfort to one's skin <bundle up if you're going sailing,

as there's a raw wind out there in the bay> -- see CUTTING 1

Merriam-Webster Online Thesaurus

Entry Word: raw material

Function: noun

Text: the basic elements from which something can be developed <Canada now

converts most of its raw materials into manufactured goods such as automobiles

and auto parts> -- see MAKING

from the University of Notre Dame

Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid

raw =

rabidus : raging, crazy.

rabies : madness, fury, frenzy.

rabiose : savagely, furiously.

radicitus : by the roots, utterly.

rapio rapui ratum : to seize, snatch, carry away.

rare : thinly, rarely, uncommonly.

rarus : rare, uncommon / far apart / thin, scanty.

ratio : reckoning, account / reason, judgment, consideration.

ratio : system, manner, method, procedure, manner.

from hyperdictionary:

Definition: 1.. [n] informal terms for nakedness; " in the raw " ; " in the

altogether " ; " in his birthday suit "

2.. [adj] not processed or subjected to analysis; " raw data " ; " the raw

cost of production " ; " only the crude vital statistics "

3.. [adj] (used informally) completely unclothed

4.. [adj] not treated with heat to prepare it for eating

5.. [adj] lacking training or experience; " the new men were eager to

fight " ; " raw recruits " ; " he was still wet behind the ears when he shipped as a

hand on a merchant vessel "

6.. [adj] brutally unfair or harsh; " received raw treatment from his

friends " ; " a raw deal "

7.. [adj] inflamed and painful; " his throat was raw " ; " had a sore

throat "

8.. [adj] unpleasantly cold and damp; " bleak winds of the North

Atlantic "

9.. [adj] having the surface exposed and painful; " a raw wound "

10.. [adj] devoid of elaboration or diminution or concealment; bare and

pure; " naked ambition " ; " raw fury " ; " you may kill someone someday with your raw

power "

11.. [adj] untempered and unrefined; " raw talent " ; " raw beauty "

12.. [adj] not processed or refined; " raw sewage "

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(The definition we'd prefer for the adjective " organic " is only listed under the

link for its " archaic " form: instrumental, fundamental.)

(Even " unrefined " might take on a negative connotation by some.)

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What power the dictionaries can have . . .

Cyndy Gray

justdairy@...

www.justdairy.org

[Guest guest]

On 2/5/06, Just Dairy <justdairy@...> wrote:

>

> A few years back, the coordinator/director for every farmers market in

Massachusetts had an absolutely furious response at me for mentioning the words

" raw milk. " It is so strange to see so many people get offended at the mention

of raw milk. So basic and pure, how could it have such a negative connotation

to so many?!

>

> Below are some listings for the word " raw " off the web. The majority of the

listings could be interpreted as " raw " being a negative property.

>

> There are nice words in other languages for specifically, raw meat. Sashimi.

Carpaccio. Beautiful!

>

> What if a beautiful word was coined for raw milk? Maybe there already is

one?

[Mike] Well, this is a really interesting topic to me, and my basic

answer is that " fresh milk " is just the term you're looking for. A

variant is " fresh, unprocessed milk " . The great thing about the word

" fresh " is that it's nontechnical (hence nonpretentious) and has very

positive connotations. It's also a very accurate description of the

milk we're talking about.

Actually, on the Raw Dairy group a year or two ago there was a

discussion of these terminological aesthetics and I remember making a

similar conclusion as far as a nice way of talking about raw milk to

uninformed audiences. There was a nice thread I think, so you could

hit Onibasu on that.

On the matter of how the word " raw " feels to people, well, there's

clearly a dramatic range of variation from very positive (suggests

" real " , " pure " , etc) to somewhat negative (suggests " deficient " ,

" unsafe " , etc). So that's really a crapshoot as far the effect on a

given person. It's truly sad to hear of that extreme negative

reaction you suffered.

Comparing to the meat case, we can observe that meat is traditionally

eaten both raw and cooked, so it makes sense to have special words for

a specific way of preparing meat (e.g. sashimi, carpaccio--which, by

the way, don't really mean " raw meat " as a general entity but rather a

certain class of recipes for preparing raw meat), whereas in the case

of milk there is no tradition for consuming cooked/pasteurized milk;

it's a 20th century development, and even in traditional contexts

where milk is cooked (Indian yogurt-making, various cheese-making

traditions, supposedly traditional kefir and koumiss techniques, etc),

milk is probably still conceived of as a basic food in its unprocessed

state. In other words, the true term for " raw milk " is " milk " !

Mike

SE Pennsylvania

[Guest guest]

In other words, the true term for " raw milk " is " milk " !

Mike

SE Pennsylvania

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And the 'true term' for processed milk is " dead dairy " .

Just a phrase I made up to describe this pathetic concoction of the 20th

century!

Dean