cheese

{{11}}cheese (n.¹) O.E. cyse "cheese," from W.Gmc. *kasjus (Cf. O.S. kasi, O.H.G. chasi, Ger. Käse, M.Du. case, Du. kaas), from L. caseus "cheese" (Cf. It. cacio, Sp. queso, Ir. caise, Welsh caws), perhaps from a PIE root *kwat- "to ferment, become sour" (Cf. Prakrit chasi "buttermilk;" O.C.S. kvasu "leaven," kyselu "sour," kyseti "to turn sour;" Skt. kvathati "boils, seethes," Goth. hwaþjan "foam"). Also Cf. FROMAGE (Cf. fromage). Earliest references would be to compressed curds of milk used as food; pressed or molded cheeses with rinds are 14c.

As a photographer's word to make subjects hold a smile, it is attested from 1930, but in a reminiscence of schoolboy days, which suggests an earlier use. Probably for the forced smile involved in making the -ee- sound. To make cheeses was a schoolgirls' amusement (1835) of wheeling rapidly so one's petticoats blew out in a circle then dropping down so they came to rest inflated and resembling a wheel of cheese; hence, used figuratively for "a deep curtsey."

{{12}}cheese (n.²) "the proper thing," and perhaps also in expressions such as big cheese, from Urdu chiz "a thing," from Persian chiz, from O.Pers. *ciЕЎ-ciy "something," from PIE pronomial stem *kwo- (see WHO (Cf. who)). Picked up by British in India by 1818 and used in the sense of "a big thing" (especially in the phrase the real chiz).