Can't we say "Milk is rotten"?

Question

Can't we say "Milk is rotten"? Is it really true that "off" is for milk, juice and cream? What about jelly?1) Milk is off.2) Jelly is rotten.3) Jelly is off.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Well, you cannot say it generically, in any case.

1) This milk is off.
2) My jelly is rotten.(?)
3) The jelly is off.
Rotten in my book is saved for really nasty things, like a soggy and worm-eaten apple found behind the refrigerator or the slice of pizza I found under the bed where the cat dragged it two weeks ago and the cockroaches are now feasting.
Look how the American Heritage Dictionary defines rotten: Being in a state of putrefaction or decay; decomposed. 2. Having a foul odor resulting from or suggestive of decay; putrid.

Pretty awful, eh? For our quotidian existence, the milk is off or the milk has gone bad are the most common expressions, I think. On the other hand, I recall my mother complaining that milk is so highly processed these days-- homogenized, sterilized, pumped with additives to keep it from going bad-- that it stays drinkable until it actually rots.

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Marius Hancu · Answer

Perhaps
The milk has soured, not rotten.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Also, spoiled.

"Here, smell this. Do you think the milk has spoiled?" But like Mr. M's mother, I probably say "gone bad" more than any other.

FluidnMotion · Answer

Just for kicks.

Milk getting spoilt is a bacterial activity.

Meat getting rotten is a fungal activity.

Usually bacterial activity precedes fungal activity. So, something has to be spoilt before it rots. Rotting usually happens in dead things.

Parasitic activity occurs in rotting where intruding organism eats its hosts. In milk getting spoilt, it is just the milk and bacteria coexist changing the original characteristic of milk.

So, technically it would be wrong to say "Milk is rotting".

As the general lingo goes in America, everything that goes inside a refrigerator is susceptible to rotting. But then, that is Americanized English.

Ewomack · Answer

I often hear "This milk has gone bad", or, "This milk's bad". Accompanied by wincing and gagging, of course.

Saying "This milk is off" might fly in Britian, but Americans probably wouldn't understand.

Mister Micawber · Answer

Milk getting spoilt is a bacterial activity. Meat getting rotten is a fungal activity.

A neat solution, FluidnMotion-- I like it... were it not for the first entry in the online Oxford:

verb (rotted, rotting) 1 decompose by the action of bacteria and fungi.

I went looking, and there seem to be a range of definitions out there. Overeall, rot seems to be more specific-- the action of rotting agents, while spoil tends to indicate a more general 'make unfit for consumption'. Here is more than we need to know from the American Heritage Dictionary:

SYNONYMS:decay, rot, putrefy, spoil, crumble, molder, disintegrate, decompose These verbs refer to gradual change resulting in destruction or dissolution. Decay can denote partial deterioration short of complete destruction: Brush and floss regularly to prevent teeth from decaying. Rot is sometimes synonymous with decay, but often, like putrefy, stresses offensiveness to the sense of smell: The food left on the counter began to rot. Arctic cold prevented the prehistoric animal from putrefying. Spoil usually refers to the process by which perishable substances become unfit for use or consumption: Put the fish in the refrigerator before they spoil. Crumble implies physical breakdown into small fragments or particles: The ancient church had crumbled to ruins. To molder is to crumble to dust: The shawl had moldered away in the trunk. Disintegrate refers to complete breakdown into component parts: The sandstone façade had disintegrated from exposure to the elements. Decompose, largely restricted to the breakdown of substances into their chemical components, also connotes rotting and putrefying, both literally and figuratively: “trivial personalities decomposing in the eternity of print” (Virginia Woolf).

Teleostomi · Answer

Thank you, now I'm confident to distinguish those words!

FluidnMotion · Answer

Now, what do we do to correct Oxford's definition.

I know...I know...you are looking for your Winchester.

I stand corrected Mr.Micawber.

Teleostomi · Answer

Thanks everybody!

BTW, what does "You are looking for your Winchester" mean? Is it an idiom?

Mister Micawber · Answer

Not an idiom, but a joke. A Winchester is a famous brand of [url=http://www.winchester.com/]RIFLE[/url].

Can't we say "Milk is rotten"?

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