According to the Treccani, the morpho-lexical type mucca (roa. fem.), which exclusively denotes the MILK-GIVING COW (DAIRY COW), originated in Tuscany, but is now widespread throughout Italy. For the origin of the word, the Treccani suggests the Swiss German word mugg, which originally denoted the cows sold at the fair of (Tommaseo/Bellini, under mucca). The Swiss German word is apparently related to the verb muggen, which, among other things, refers to the MOOING of the cow (Idiotikon under mugge[n]).

The cattle market of Lugano (the so-called "Fiera Grossa"), which took place every October from 1513 until the early 20th century, supplied all of northern Italy with cattle from central and eastern Switzerland as well as the neighbouring Austria (see HLS under Lugano [3 – Neuzeit]). It is quite possible that Tuscan farmers also frequented the cattle market in Lugano (see Tommaseo/Bellini loc. cit.). Consequently, it is indeed conceivable that a Tuscan word developed from a Swiss-German term that appeared in Ticino. It is also possible, however, that mucca represents a syncretism of vacca and mungere, 'to milk' (see Hall 1940; cf. also Tommaseo/Bellini, loc. cit.). The grc. word Μυκάω 'mungere' also given by Tommaseo/Bellini loc. cit. as a possible origin of mucca is not attested in the LSJ. The medial form μῡκάομαι recorded there means 'to roar, to drone' and thus is not semantically related to MUNGERE/MELKEN.