cheesecake

Etymology

It is formed from English cheese + cake,^[2][3][4] first as late Middle English chese kake.^[4] The first element goes back to Old English cēse,^[5] and the second comes from Old Norse kaka.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tart or pie filled with a mixture first made with cheese, later usually with curds or cream, eggs, sugar, butter and flavourings: 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The filling changed before the name did: the early cheesecake contained cheese, later sweetened soft curds.^[3][2] Johnson (1755) defined it as a cake of soft curds, sugar and butter.^[6] Figuratively the word stood for something soft or effeminate in the 18th century,^[3] and in 17th-century slang for a prostitute, part of a long habit of equating food with attractive women.^[7] The modern slang sense, photographs of attractive women showing their bodies, began in the United States: Green's Dictionary of Slang cites a cartoon character, Mlle Cheesecake, in 1913, the OED's first record is from 1929, and Etymonline dates it to 1933.^[7][2][3] In 1934 Time magazine explained it as leg-pictures of sporty women.^[3][7] Etymonline quotes John Ayto that none of the fanciful theories about the origin of this sense is convincing;^[3] Green's Dictionary of Slang tentatively suggests a photographer's call to "say cheese".^[7]

Timeline

• 1440 – a tart or pie with a filling of cheese or curds.^[2]
• 1656 – in slang, a prostitute.^[7]
• 1913 – Mlle Cheesecake, in a cartoon strip by T. A. Dorgan.^[7]
• 1929 – revealing photographs of women.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1933.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rich dessert made with soft or cream cheese, eggs and sugar, baked or set in a pastry case or on a base of crushed biscuits: a slice of lemon cheesecake.^[5][8][9]
2. (informal) Photographs or displays of attractive, scantily dressed women; pin-up pictures.^[5][8][2][7]
3. (obsolete) A tart or pie filled with cheese or curds, eggs, sugar and butter.^[2][6]

Related words

• cheese
• cake

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins