Milkmaid

{{Short description|Girl or woman employed to milk dairy cows}}

{{Other uses}}

File:Maelkejunger aag fjelstrup haderslev 193x danske kvinders fotoarkiv.jpg circa 1935]]

A milkmaid, milk maid, milkwoman, dairymaid, or dairywoman is a girl or woman who works with milk or cows.{{Cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199330881.001.0001/acref-9780199330881-e-270 |url-access=subscription |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to Cheese |year=2017 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199330881.013.0270 |isbn=978-0-19-933088-1 |title=Dairymaids |first=Jessica A. B. |last=Galen |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=1st |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |access-date=2022-12-23}}

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;{{Citation needed|reason=in the Netherlands women (also) delivered the milk, so a source for this distinction is needed|date=August 2016}} it is the female equivalent of milkman in the sense of cowman or dairyman.{{cite journal |last=Hough |first=Carole |title=Middle English Deye in a Fifteenth-Century Cookery Book |journal=Neuphilologische Mitteilungen |volume=102 |issue=3 |year=2001 |pages=303–305 |jstor=43344800 |quote=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'.}}

{{see|Jack in the Green#Origins in the 18th century}}

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.{{cite web |last1=Hammerstrom |first1=Kirsten |title=Blame the Milk Maid |url=https://kittycalash.com/2013/02/07/pewter-and-tin/ |website=Kitty Calash |access-date=5 November 2024 |language=en |date=7 February 2013}}

• {{Cite book |last=Judge |first=Roy |title=The Jack in the Green, a May Day Custom |year=1979 |publisher=D S Brewer |isbn=0-85991-029-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/jackinthegreenma0083judg}}
• {{cite book |last=Judge |first=Roy |title=The Jack-in-the-Green: A May Day Custom |location=London |publisher=The Folklore Society Books |year=2000 |edition=second |isbn=0-903515-20-2}}