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Some time ago we had the question of the origin of the words fromage (Fr.) and formaggio (It.). I stumbled across this dictionary http://www.geocities.com/etymonline/ which gives us the Midlle Latin formaticum in its entry for cheese.
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Maitre corbeau sur un arbre perché Tenait en son bec un fromage...... Etymology: the word cheese derives from the Latin "caseus", meaning a wicker basket in which the cheese was left to drain. The Greek equivalent, "formos", has given us Fromage, the French word for cheese. http://www.france.net.nz/gastronomy/food/cheese.htm
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Dites "fromage"
hehehe... I just now got it.
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Did you get your picture taken?
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old hand
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old hand
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Dites "fromage" hehehe... I just now got it. D'Oh! Me too. I thought notre RdPdT was making an arcane joke, comparing formaticum/fromage to shibboleth/sibboleth - I guess my mind's just too highly trained. thanks Douglas
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I saw that same formos one, wondered why they used an f and discounted it for some other reason. I'll look formos (or phormos) up in my Greek dictionary when I get home. No reason the Latin couldn't have come from the Greek but words of that sort didn't normally change gender in the process. The geocities site traces cheese back through Latin to I.E. base *kwat- "to ferment, become sour." AHD doesn't list kwat- in its list of IE roots.
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I guess my mind's just too highly trained. thanks Douglas
Lonely at the "top," ain't it... (hey, how'd you get your letters to go small without HTML? Did you intentionally not close a mark-up tag?)
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old hand
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old hand
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The letters all look the same size to me.
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My B&M AHD has kwath- as a root with the meaning to ferment, be sour, but has only kvass in its list of modern descendants.
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enthusiast
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It sounds so strange to me, all these explainations. Since I feel the strong relationship between formaggio and forma ( shape, or even the tool to give something a given shape). I mean, the formaggio takes its "forma" from the cointainer it is in. Also, we say "una forma di parmigiano" = the round (flat cilindrical) piece of parmesan cheese.
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