cheese

English has two nouns spelled cheese: the food, from Latin caseus, and a slang word for “the right thing”, from Urdu chīz “thing”.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tʃiːz/^[4]

cheese¹ food

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chese,^[5][2] inherited from Old English ċēse, Anglian, and cȳse, West Saxon,^[1][5][6] from Proto-West Germanic *kasjus,^[1][6] also the source of Old Saxon kāsi, German Käse and Dutch kaas,^[1][5] an early borrowing from Latin cāseus (“cheese”),^[1][5][6] which also gave Italian cacio, Spanish queso and Welsh caws.^[1] The Latin word is of uncertain origin:^[5][1] Watkins suggests a root *kwat- “to ferment, become sour”, but de Vaan finds no etymology without weak assumptions and suggests a loanword.^[1] The Scandinavian words, Danish and Swedish ost, are unrelated.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English cāse is from 800, in an early glossary, and cyse from before 1000, in Ælfric's Colloquy;^[5] the OED's first quotation is from before 1000.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The earliest references are to pressed curds of milk; pressed or moulded cheeses with rinds are from the 14th century,^[1] 1362 in the OED.^[3] The surname Chesemangere is from 1186.^[5] Chalk and cheese is from about 1425.^[3] Other cheese-like substances are called cheese from the 1530s.^[1] As a photographer's word to make people smile, and school slang for a smile, it is from 1930.^[1][3] Hard cheese, bad luck, is from 1876.^[3] Big cheese, an important person, is from 1914 in American English and probably belongs with this word,^[1] and cut a big cheese, to look important, is from 1915.^[1]

Timeline

• 800 – Old English cāse.^[5]
• 1186 – the surname Chesemangere.^[5]
• 1362 – a whole cheese.^[3]
• 1530s – cheese-like substances.^[1]
• 1876 – hard cheese.^[3]
• 1914 – big cheese.^[1]
• 1930 – say cheese.^[1][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A solid food made from the pressed curd of milk, often seasoned and aged.
2. A moulded mass of this food.
3. Something like cheese in shape or consistency.
4. (informal) big cheese: an important person.

Word family

• cheesy
• cheesecake
• cheesecloth
• cheesed off

cheese² the right thing

Etymology

It is probably from Urdu chīz “thing”, borrowed from Persian چیز (čiz, “thing”),^[1][2][7] from Old Persian *ciš-ciy “something”,^[1] picked up by the British in India.^[1] Wiktionary notes that the word does not appear first in Anglo-Indian sources, which casts doubt on this.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

1818, as slang for the right or correct thing, anything first-rate.^[3][1][2]

Semantic evolution

It was used especially in the phrase the real chiz, a big thing.^[1] Wealth and fame, and an important person, are from before 1910 in the OED,^[3] but Etymonline thinks the American big cheese more likely belongs to the food word.^[1]

Timeline

• 1818 – the right thing.^[3][1]
• a. 1910 – an important person.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (dated slang) the cheese: the right or proper thing.

Related words

• casein
• queso

Usage notes

The slang verb cheese it, stop, run off, is from 1812, in thieves' slang, of unknown origin.^[1][6][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org