queijo

Forms

queijo m (plural queijos)^[1] Houaiss records the historical spellings queso (in a Latin legal text of 1188–1230), queixo (1312), queyio (14th century) and queyjo (15th century).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cāseus (“cheese”), written Old Galician-Portuguese queijo in the oldest Portuguese texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes and Aurélio pass it through an archaic queiso, and Nascentes's fuller dictionary cites Menéndez Pidal, who sets up a form *caisu with the i moved into the first syllable.^[4][5] Houaiss adds that the word came by way of Spanish queso, recorded in Spain from 980, whereas Wiktionary and the other dictionaries derive it straight from the Latin word.^[2][1]

The same Latin word is Galician queixo, Italian cacio and Romanian caș, besides the Spanish word.^[1] Corominas notes that it survived in Romanian, Italian, Sardinian, Castilian and Portuguese, while Gallo-Romance and Catalan replaced it with Latin formaticus “(cheese) made in a mould”, whence French fromage and Italian formaggio.^[6][2] The Latin word was also borrowed early into Germanic, giving German Käse and English cheese.^[2][1]

De Vaan reconstructs *kāsejo- with a query, and finds that every proposed etymology rests on weak assumptions: the old link with Proto-Indo-European *kwath₂- (“to boil, ferment”) would leave an unexplained loss of the w.^[7][1] The Latin word may have been borrowed from a neighbouring Italic language, perhaps Sabine.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In a Latin legal text of 1188–1230 the Romance word already appears, spelt queyso in the phrase in anafaga, et in sal, et in queyso.^[4][2] The first dated Portuguese record in Houaiss is queixo of 1312.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of bon queijo rezente “good fresh cheese”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense “cheese” has stayed at the centre of the word since the Middle Ages.^[2] Morais's dictionary of 1789 already extends it to things shaped like a cheese, such as queijo de figos, a cake of dried figs pressed into a round, and a brawn made from a pig's head.^[9] Houaiss dates the slang sense “profitable business” to 1899, and Caldas Aulete records the related sense “an easy source of gain”.^[2][10]

Informal Brazilian Portuguese uses the word for the full moon and for a bald head, and in Ceará for a patch of another colour sewn into the seat of trousers; in Portugal it can mean a buttock, and é queijo “it's cheese” means “it is easy” or “it is good”.^[2][11] The phrase ter a faca e o queijo na mão “to have the knife and the cheese in one's hand” means to have full power over something.^[12][10]

Portuguese passed the word into Malay and Indonesian as keju, into Tetum as keiju and into Guinea-Bissau Creole as keju.^[1]

Timeline

• 1188–1230 – queyso in a Latin legal text.^[4][2]
• 1312 – first dated record in Portuguese, spelt queixo.^[2]
• 14th century – the spelling queyio;^[2] queyjo in the 15th century.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary renders queijo by Latin caseus.^[13]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists queijo fresco and queijo molle.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as curdled ewe's, goat's, cow's or buffalo's milk pressed in the mould.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais records queijo de figos.^[9]
• 1820s – first record of pão, pão, queijo, queijo “plainly, without beating about the bush”.^[1]
• 1899 – first record of the sense “profitable business”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. cheese, the food made by curdling milk and pressing and drying the curd: Comprou um queijo da serra na feira.^[2][5][16]
2. Any food with the shape or texture of a cheese.^[2][5]
3. (informal) An easy profit; a lucrative deal.^[2][17]
4. (Brazil, informal) The full moon; a bald head.^[2][17]
5. (Ceará) A patch of another colour on the seat of trousers.^[2][11]
6. (Portugal, informal) A buttock; a bowler hat.^[2]

Word family

• queijada
• queijeiro
• requeijão

Related words

• Latin caseus
• Galician queixo
• Spanish queso

Usage notes

Pão, pão, queijo, queijo “bread, bread, cheese, cheese” means “plainly, without evasion”; it comes from the older chamar ao pão, pão e ao queijo, queijo, “to call a spade a spade”.^[1][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. queijo
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. queijo
4. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 426
5. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. queijo
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 721
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. queijo
9. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 274
10. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. queijo
11. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. queijo
12. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. queijo
13. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. queijo
14. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. queijo
15. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. queijo
16. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. queijo
17. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. queijo
18. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pão, pão, queijo, queijo