buttermilkfudge.co.uk

Cheese is one of life’s greatest pleasures. I enjoy cheese in almost every variety, even the strange yellow squares whose relationship with cheese is tenable. Indeed, I am of the persuasion that everything tastes better with cheese. Ricotta, parmesan, goat’s cheese, cottage cheese, haloumi, brie, mozzarella, feta... I love them all.

The word ‘cheese’ derives from the Latin ‘caseus’ which evolved into the Middle English ‘chese’. In Western Germanic languages, the word for ‘cheese’ betrays similar Latin roots. In Dutch it is ‘kaas’, in German it is ‘Käse’ and in West Frisian it is ‘tsiis’, all stemming from ‘kasjus’, an early borrowing from the Latin ‘caseus.’

Modern ‘Romance’ languages take their terms for ‘cheese’ from the Latin ‘formaticum’ which translates as ‘formed’ as opposed to ‘mouldy.’ Romans made hard cheeses for the supplies of their legionaries and this was dubbed ‘caseus formatus.’ It is from ‘formaticum’ that the French ‘fromage’, the Breton ‘fourmaj’, the Provençal ‘furmo’ and the Italian ‘formaggio’ derive. Obviously r4 3ds does not share the same etymology!