"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

Welcome to Words!

*NERD ALERT*

Kevin, being the wonderful person that he is, managed to get me access to something I have been denied since graduating college: The Oxford English Dictionary Online! 

We share a love of etymology, and he (gently) reminded me this was an idea I toyed with months back as a potential section for my blog. I'm thrilled to debut Words! When I come across something interesting in my travels through the OED, I will share it with you*.

"Word"

I thought I might start with something right in front of my nose. The word "word"!

Here's what the OED has to say:

"Etymology:  Cognate with Old Frisian word (West Frisian wurd), Old Dutch wort (Middle Dutch wort, word, Dutch woord), Old Saxonword (Middle Low German wort), Old High German wort (Middle High German wort, German Wort), Old Icelandic orð, Old Swedish orþ(Swedish ord), Old Danish orth (Danish ord), Gothic waurd, all denoting both ‘an utterance’ and ‘an element or unit of speech, a word’ < the same Indo-European base as Lithuanian vardas name, forename, title, Latvian vārds word, forename, promise, classical Latin verbum word, showing an extended form of the Indo-European base of ancient Greek ῥήτωρ (earlier ϝρήτωρ) speaker, (Epic and Ionic) ἐρέω (earlier ϝερέω; Attic ἐρῶ) I shall say, and perhaps also Sanskrit vrata behest, command."

So basically, "word" means "an utterance" or more banaly, "something you call something".

The only other language I speak (and I use that term loosely) is French, and I noticed that the word mot was missing from this list. Where do the French get their "word" word? Things were made more clear once I looked up mot itself:

"Etymology:  < Middle French, French mot word, utterance, saying, motto, heraldic device (c1000 in Old French, c1227 in bon mot clever or witty saying (see bon mot n. at bon adj. g); 1549 in mot pour rire witticism; 1585 or earlier in sense ‘expressive saying’; late 14th cent. in sense ‘motto, heraldic device’) < post-classical Latin muttum uttered sound (a420) < classical Latin muttīre to mutter, murmur < an imitative base probably seen also in mussāre (see mussitate v.) and mūtus mute adj. Compare Italian motto (see motto n.), Old Occitan mot(mid 11th cent.), Catalan mot (late 13th cent.), Spanish mote (13th cent.), Portuguese mote (16th cent.; earlier moto , 15th cent.). Compare earlier mot n.1 and later mot n.4""

So, as it turns out, mot comes from the same root as "motto" - they both are derived from the Latin muttum meaning "uttered sound" or "mutter". Not that different from "word" after all!

There you have it. Stay tuned for more words!

*PS: If you too are interested in gaining access, check to see if your local library, place of work, or school has a subscription.