An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Käse

by Friedrich Kluge

Käse, masculine, ‘cheese,’ from the equivalent Middle High German kœse, Old High German châsi, masculine; Latin câseus (whence also Old Irish caise), before the 5th century at the latest was adopted in the vernacular form câsius (variant căscus?) by the Teutons; compare Dutch kaas, Anglo-Saxon čŷse, English cheese. It corresponds in Romance to Italian cacio, Spanish queso; yet câseus was supplanted in the dialects at an early date by Latin *formaticus, ‘(cheese) mould’; compare French fromage (Italian formaggio). Old Icelandic has a peculiar word for ‘cheese,’ ostr, in Gothic perhaps *justs (compare Finnish juusto, ‘cheese’); the assumed Gothic *justs is connected etymologically with Latin jus, ‘broth,’ Old Slovenian jucha, ‘soup,’ Old Indian yûšán, ‘soup’ (compare Jauche), the root of which is yu, ‘to mix,’ in Lithuanian jáuju, jáuti, ‘to mix (dough).’ From this collocation of terms it is probable that *justs is the Old Teutonic word for ‘cheese,’ and that the Teutons did not learn how to make cheese from the Southerners, but only an improved method of doing so when they adopted the term Käse from them. It is true that according to Pliny, Hist. Nat. xi. 41, the barbarians generally were not acquainted with the method; yet compare also Butter.