feta

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek φέτα (féta),^[2][3][4] literally "slice", short for a phrase formed with τυρί (tyrí, “cheese”), that is, cheese in slices.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} Dictionary.com traces the Greek word for cheese back to Ancient Greek τυρός (tyrós).^[8] The Greek word for a slice is from Italian fetta (“slice”),^{[3][10][6][7]} which the American Heritage Dictionary traces to a diminutive *offetta, whose first vowel was lost when the word was misdivided after the article, and ultimately to Latin offa (“morsel of food”), a word of unknown origin.^[3][5] Etymonline likewise derives the Italian word from the Latin one.^[10] The Italian word is also the source of fettuccine.^[10][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A white Greek cheese made from sheep's or goats' milk: Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1915,^[6] Dictionary.com to 1935–40,^[8] and the OED and Etymonline to 1956, when it appears in A. L. Simon's Cheeses of the World.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

The name describes the way the cheese is cut and sold, in slices.^[9][5] It has kept a single meaning in English, a white, salty cheese of sheep's or goats' milk, cured or preserved in brine.^{[2][6][11][7]}

Timeline

• 1915 – the Greek cheese.^[6] The OED's first record is from 1956.^[2][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A white, salty, crumbly cheese from Greece, made from the milk of sheep or goats and cured in brine: a salad of tomatoes, cucumber and feta.^{[6][11][7][2]}

Related words

• fettuccine

Usage notes

The word is often written with a capital, Feta,^[12] and the Shorter Oxford also records the spelling fetta.^[13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
10. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press