[the_gastropod]

Source? Afaik, coconut milk and soy milk have not only been made for centuries, but also called something like “milk” where they were consumed (e.g. India, China, Thailand, etc.)

ETA: The Mahābhārata, a book dating back to 400BCE, refers to making rice milk. So...

https://books.google.com/books?id=ivQ6CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT14&lpg=P...

[jtuente]

Is that a translation preference or is the word for milk used specifically?

That excerpt is talking about deceiving someone with dilute pounded rice served as milk.

[markdown]

I don't know about soy milk, but that's not true at all for coconut where it was consumed.