caseus

Latin

Etymology

Unknown according to De Vaan. The old hypothesis deriving it from Proto-Indo-European *kwh₂et- (“to ferment, become sour”) has the problem that *w isn't supposed to disappear in Latin (the expected outcome would start with qua- and not ca-). In this case, the cognates listed under *kwh₂et- are perhaps loans from the same substrate source as the Latin term.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkaː.se.us/, [ˈkäːs̠eʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈka.se.us/, [ˈkäːs̬eus]

Noun

cāseus m (genitive cāseī); second declension

1. cheese

   Synonyms: (medieval) fōrmāticum, fōrmāgium

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.769:

     ‘ūbera plēna premam, referat mihi cāseus aera,
     dentque viam liquidō vīmina rāra serō.’

     ‘‘Let me squeeze full udders, may my cheese repay me with money,
     and may the wicker strainer give a passage to the liquid whey.’’
     (A shepherd’s prayer to Pales.)

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	cāseus	cāseī
genitive	cāseī	cāseōrum
dative	cāseō	cāseīs
accusative	cāseum	cāseōs
ablative	cāseō	cāseīs
vocative	cāsee	cāseī

Derived terms

• cāseārius
• cāseātus
• cāseolus

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: cash, cashu
  • Romanian: caș
• Dalmatian:
  • chis
• Italo-Romance:
  • Corsican: casgiu
  • Italian: cacio
    • → Sicilian: caciu
  • Neapolitan: caso
  • Sicilian: casu (Calabrian)
• North Italian:
  • Old Venetan: caso
• Occitano-Romance:
  • ⇒ Gascon: casás (“butter, cheese, whey”)
  • ⇒ Old Occitan: casadure (“royalty on cheese”)
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Aragonese: queso
  • Old Leonese: kesos (plural)
    • Asturian: quesu, queisu
    • Extremaduran: quesu
    • Leonese: queisu
    • Mirandese: queiso
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: queijo
    • Fala: queixhu, queixu (Valverdeñu)
    • Galician: queixo
    • Portuguese: queijo (see there for further descendants)
  • Old Spanish: queso
    • Ladino: kézo
    • Spanish: queso (see there for further descendants)
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: casu
• Borrowings:
  • → Old Irish: cáise (see there for further descendants)
  • → Proto-Brythonic: *kọs (see there for further descendants)
  • → Proto-West Germanic: *kāsī (see there for further descendants)

Further reading

• “caseus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “caseus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• caseus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• caseus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “caseus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “caseus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 2: C Q K, pages –456-58