"Cheese"
/The problem with writing about words themselves is that there are so many to choose from! To start my "word-search", I am going to work my way through words I use on this website on a regular basis. My second word shall be cheese!
The OED says:
Forms: OE cese, cyse, ME cease, cæse, ME schese, 15 chease, cheise, chiese, ches, ME–15 chese, ME, 15– cheese.
Etymology: Old English (Anglian) cése, (West Saxon) *cíese, cýse (with i- umlaut < céasi, cǽsi) = Old High German châsi (Middle High German kæse, German käse), Old Low German kâsi, kêsi (Middle Dutch kâse, Dutch kaas) < West Germanic *kâsi, < Latin cāseus cheese (bef. 5th cent.)
While trying to say these old words aloud, I started recognizing some of them. On New Years Eve we served a cheese that was called "Crema Kasa" and I also recently wrote about the Greek melting cheese, "Kasseri". These words obviously share the same root as our "cheese". Then the lightbulb really went on: queso! I felt a little silly for not seeing that English-Spanish cognate right away.
But once again, my ever-so-slight knowledge of French got me thinking - where does fromage get its root? I turned to the Online Etymology Dictionary for this one. French is a romance language, so it is unsurprising that fromage comes from the Latin formaticum, or forma (where the Italian formaggio is derived from as well) meaning "form, shape or mold".
Then it REALLY hit me - does "cheese" come from the same functional meaning? "Case" perhaps?
The OED defines cheese in the following ways:
1. A substance used as food, consisting of the curd of milk (coagulated by rennet) separated from the whey and pressed into a solid mass.
and
2. A mass of this substance, as made in the mould or press, of a definite size and shape (usually wheel-shaped, cylindrical, or globular), and covered with its hardened outer layer or ‘rind’.
This second definition made me think I was on to something - the word "mold" is also present - so I looked up the etymology of "case".
The OED says:
Forms: ME– case; also ME cas, caas, kase, ME–15 cass, ME kace, ME–15 casse, 15 (Sc.) cais.
Etymology: < Old Northern French casse, in central Old French chasce, chasse, modern French châsse (= Italian cassa) < Latin capsa case, receptacle, < cap-ĕre to take, hold.
Some of these words (case, kase, cese) seem similar enough for me to make an educated guess that the words for "cheese" and "case" are related - but more research is needed to be sure!
In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed these little revelations as much as I did :) YAY CHEESE