cāseus

Meaning

1. cheese
   ‘ūbera plēna premam, referat mihi cāseus aera,‘‘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.)8 CE, Ovidius, Fasti 4.769

Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers

Declension

Origins

Unknown according to De Vaan. The old hypothesis deriving it from Proto-Indo-European *kwath₂ (“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 *kweth₂- are perhaps loans from the same substrate source as the Latin term. A loan from a neighbouring Italian language, especially Sabine, has also been posited. Alternatively, taking into account Ossetian цыхт (cyxt) (<< Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp; to sting”)), Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut”) can be tentatively supposed as an ultimate source of the term; however, the vowel length mismatches.