Feta has been around in Greece since the eighth century B.C.E., but its name is actually borrowed from an Italian word that means "slice."
That's just one of the 24 facts about cheese name origins in this week's List Show video from our sister site, Mental Floss. Author John Green explains a number of strange cheese names in the video — for some reason, Green notes, "there's something about the name 'American cheese' that's just a little more appetizing" than calling it by its other names, "factory cheese" and "rat trap cheese."
To learn more about the origins of cheese names, check out the Mental Floss video below. —Meghan DeMaria
The Week
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