Ask Lemmy

Queijo. I pronounce it as ['ke:ʒo] but other local pronunciations can be like, ['kɐɪ̯.ʒ], ['keɪ̯.ʒu] etc. Portuguese cognate to Spanish ⟨queso⟩, Italian ⟨cacio⟩ etc., they all backtrack to Latin cáseum [ˈkä:.se.ʊ̃] (nominative cáseus).

Proto-Germanic, Old Irish and Proto-Brythonic borrowed the Latin word, so German ⟨Käse⟩, English ⟨cheese⟩, Norwegian ⟨kjese⟩ "rennet", Welsh ⟨caws⟩, Irish ⟨cáis⟩ are also cognates.

Further etymology is disputed. I've seen some claims it's from PIE *kʷeth₂os, roughly "the foamy one", or "the fermenting one". I call it bullshit because 1) Latin mostly keeps PIE *kʷ as such, spelled ⟨qu⟩; 2) that *h₂ would neither elongate the first vowel nor a-colour it, instead it would attack the second one. The result would be roughly **quesas; at most quesus or quesa if regularised.