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Cheese In Language
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Throughout the history of the English language, the word cheese has been chese (in Middle English) and ciese or cese (in Old English). Similar words are shared by other West Germanic languages — Frisian tsiis, Dutch kaas, German Käse, Old High German chasi — all of which probably come from the reconstructed West-Germanic root *kasjus, which in turn is an early borrowing from Latin. The Latin word caseus — from which are derived the Spanish queso, Portuguese queijo, Malay/Indonesian Language keju (most likely from the corruption of the Portuguese word queijo), Romanian cas and Italian cacio — and the Celtic root which gives the Irish cáis and the Welsh caws are also related. This whole group of words is probably derived from the proto-Indo-European root *kwat-, which means "to ferment, become sour". When the Romans began to make hard cheeses for their legionaries' supplies, a new word started to be used: formaticum, from caseus formatus, or "molded cheese". It is from this word that we get the French fromage, Italian formaggio, Catalan formatge, Breton fourmaj and Provençal furmo. Cheese itself is occasionally employed in a sense that means "molded" or "formed". Head cheese uses the word in this sense. In modern English slang, something "cheesy" is kitsch, cheap, inauthentic, or of poor quality. One can also be "cheesed off"— unhappy or annoyed. Such negative connotations might derive from a ripe cheese's sometimes-unpleasant odor. Almost certainly the odor explains the use of "cutting the cheese" as a euphemism for flatulence, and the term "cheesy feet" to mean feet which smell. A more upbeat slang use is seen in "the big cheese", an expression referring to the most important person in a group, the "big shot" or "head honcho". This use of the word probably derived not from the word cheese, but from the Persian or Hindi word chiz, meaning a thing.[27] A more whimsical bit of American and Canadian slang refers to school buses as "cheese wagons", a reference to school bus yellow. Subjects of photographs are often encouraged to "say cheese!", as the word "cheese" contains the phoneme /i/, a long vowel which requires the lips to be stretched in the appearance of a smile.[28] People from Wisconsin and the Netherlands, both centers of cheese production, have been called cheeseheads. This nickname has been embraced by Wisconsin sports fans — especially fans of the Green Bay Packers or Wisconsin Badgers — who are now seen in the stands sporting plastic or foam hats in the shape of giant cheese wedges. |
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Latest News On Cheese | |
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