Etymology starting from an inflected form, the neuter plural, of καλός "beautiful / good", here with the meaning "good". The fact that from a neuter plural is derived a neuter singular, with a different inflection type, was not a problem for Greek lexicographers, for whom as a rule morphological criteria (such as inflection type) are secondary. This derivational etymology implies only one formal manipulation, voicing of the initial velar stop. It etymologizes milk as the best and most appropriate type of food for young animals (anthropocentric point of view valid only for mammals). Notice the relationship is not established between "milk" and "food", but between "milk" and "good (food)": there is a dissociation between the semantic relationship (milk = food) and the formal relationship [gala = kala], the etymology requiring a noun phrase in order to work and not a single word (see a similar pattern, with a verb phrase, in /)