caș

Forms

caș n (plural cașuri)^[1] Besides the neuter plural cașuri there is a masculine plural cași, used for single cheeses.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cāseus (“cheese”), also cāseum.^{[5][6][7][8][2][1]} The Latin word has no agreed etymology; de Vaan regards it as unknown and perhaps a loan.^[9]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian caș, Megleno-Romanian caș and Istro-Romanian cåș.^{[6][5][10][11]} Its Romance cognates include Italian cacio, Sardinian casu, Spanish queso and Portuguese queijo.^[6][8][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Slavonic–Romanian document of 1523.^[4][5] The derivative cășărie, the place at the sheepfold where cheese is made, and also a tax on cheese, is recorded earlier, in 1498.^[5] In Romanian texts the word appears in the Bucharest Bible of 1688, in Job 10:10, as cașul.^[13][14]

Semantic evolution

In the old language caș was the general word for cheese, as it still is in Aromanian, Megleno- and Istro-Romanian; later brânză took that role and caș narrowed to fresh, unsalted ewe's cheese, from which brânză is made.^[5][15][4] In some Transylvanian towns caș came to name foreign and finer cheeses as against salted local brânză, a distinction the DA puts down to the influence of Hungarian, which separates túró (“cottage cheese”) and sajt (“cheese”).^[15] A caș is also a single cheese pressed into shape.^[14][4]

The yellowish skin at the corners of a nestling's beak is called caș, and the expression e cu cașul la gură “he still has the cheese at his mouth” mocks a young person without experience.^[2][4] Cașul-popii “the priest's cheese” is the round-leaved mallow, whose fruits children eat.^[4][3][16] The plural cașuri passed into Turkish as kaşar, a kind of cheese.^[6][17]

Timeline

• 1498 – cășărie “cheese-making place; tax on cheese”.^[5]
• 1523 – caș in a Slavonic–Romanian document, the first record.^[4][5]
• 1535 – caș-baci “cheese in brine”, at Brașov.^[5][15]
• c. 1660–1670 – caș in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicon Lex.St.^[18]
• 1688 – cașul in the Bucharest Bible (Job 10:10), and the diminutive cășuleț.^[13][5]
• 1810 – cășar “cheese maker”.^[5]
• 1850 – cășos “cheesy, like caș”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Fresh unsalted cheese made from curdled milk drained of whey: Ciobanul ne-a dat un caș dulce. “The shepherd gave us a fresh unsalted cheese.”^[2][14][1]
2. A quantity of such cheese pressed into shape.^[14][4]
3. The yellowish-white matter at the corners of a young bird's beak.^[2][14]
4. cașul-popii the round-leaved mallow (Malva rotundifolia).^[14][16]

Word family

• cașcovă
• cășar
• cășărie
• cășos
• cășulean
• cășuleț

Related words

• câșlegi
• brânză
• Aromanian caș
• Latin cāseus

Usage notes

E cu cașul la gură or încă nu i-a picat cașul de la gură is said ironically of an inexperienced young person.^[2] A fi pâine și caș cu cineva means “to be close friends”.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 151
3. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 237
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. caș
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. caș
6. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. caș
7. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 303
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 275
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 250
11. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 62
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1738
13. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Job 10:10
14. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 306
15. ^ a b c Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. caș
16. ^ a b Panțu, Zach. C. (1929), Plantele cunoscute de poporul român. Vocabular botanic cuprinzând numirile române, franceze, germane și științifice, 2nd ed., București: Editura Casei Școalelor, p. 48
17. ^ Tietze, Andreas (2002–2018), Tarihi ve Etimolojik Türkiye Türkçesi Lugatı, Istanbul: Simurg; Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, p. 162
18. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. caș