▪ I. ˈcheeselip, -lep1 Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: 1 cese-, ces-, cis-, cyslyb, 5 cheslepe, -lypp, -leb, 5–7 cheslep, 6 ches-, cheselope, 7 cheslop, 7–8 cheeslep, -lip, 7–9 cheslip, 8–9 keslop, 9 cheeselop, caislip, Sc. keeslip.
[OE. céselyb(b, neut., = OHG. châsi-, chêsi-luppa, MHG. chêsluppe, kæseluppe fem., in same sense; f. cheese (in its various forms) + a word which appears in Goth. as lubjā- (? fem.) in lubjaleisei witchcraft, ? poison-herb-lore, OE. lybb neut. poison, ON. lyf fem. ‘medicinal herb, simple’, OHG. luppi neut. deadly juice, mod.G. dial. lüpp rennet. Hence the original rennet appears to have been some herb juice.
Beside this, MHG. has kæselab, mod.G. käselab, the second element of which is laab, lab rennet, MHG. lab sour fluid, OHG. lab neut. broth, decoction. Du. has also leb, lebbe, MDu. & LG. lebbe rennet:—labjô-, and MDu. libbe, lip, MLG. lip, mod.G. dial. lippe neut.:—libjo{supm}. The original relations between these words are uncertain.]
1. Rennet, for curdling milk in cheese-making.
| a 800 Corpus Gloss. 560 Coagolum ceselyb. c 1000 ibid. Coagulum ceslyb. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 18 Þa meolc ᵹeren mid cyslybbe. c 1050 Glosses in Wr.-Wülcker 365/30 Coagulum cyslyb. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 2 As runnynge or chese lope maketh mylke runne together into cruddes. 1580 Baret Alv. C 435 The running or chese lope, coagulum. 1586 Lupton 1000 Notable Th. (1675) 22 Snails..stamped and mixed..with Cheslep or Rennet do draw out thorns. 1877 E. Peacock N.W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Keslop, cheese-rennet. |
2. spec. The dried stomach of a calf (or, formerly of other animals, e.g. a hare) used for this purpose. (Formerly also called cheeselep-bag.)
| c 1000 Medicina de Quadrup. in Sax. Leechd. I. 346 Haran cyslybb. c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 666 Hec lactis..cheslypp. a 1500 Nominale ibid. 703 Hec lactis, a cheslepe. a 1500 Voc. ibid. 591 Lactis, a chesleb. 1615 Markham Eng. Housew. ii. vi. (1668) 149 The Cheslep-bag, or Runnet, is the stomack bag of a young sucking calf. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Cheeselp-Bag. 1781 J. Hutton Tour Caves Gloss. (E.D.S.), Keslop, a calves stomach, sometimes called runnet. 1788 Marshall E. Yorksh. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Cheslip-skin, the calf's bag, used in making yerning. 1801 Ord. Butchers' Guild in Ferguson & Manson Munic. Rec. Carlisle (1887) 259 No brother..shall buy any calf, to return the caislip in any State whatever. 1877 E. Peacock N.W. Linc. Gloss. Cheeselop, the dried stomach of a calf used for curdling milk for cheese. |
b. The following inaccurate explanation is found in Dicts.
| 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 323 Chees-lip, the bag wherein House-wives prepare and keep their Runnet or Rennet for their Cheese. [So without essential change in Phillips, Ray, Bailey, Webster, etc.] |
▪ II. † ˈcheeselip, -lep2 Obs. or ? dial.
Forms: 6 chesloppe, cheeselypp, -lippe, 6–8 cheselip, 7 cheslop, chislep, 7–8 cheese-, chees-, cheslip.
[Etymol. unknown.
Has been conjectured to be the same word as prec., the animal having possibly been in repute as a rennet. Against this is the consideration that this word belongs (now at least) to the southern dialects, while cheeselip, rennet, is more especially northern. Cf. also the equivalent cheslock, and dialectal chesil-, chissel-bob, cheese-bug. (It seems hardly possible that the second part could be lop flea.)]
The common wood-louse; also (in 16–17th c. authors more commonly) the allied Armadillo wood-louse, or the similar pill-millipede.
| 1530 Palsgr. 204/2 Chesloppe, a worme, cloporte. 1552 Huloet, Cheeselypp worme, otherwyse called Robyn-good-felowe his lowse, tylus. 1573 Cooper Thesaurus, Tylus, a vermin liyng vnder stones and tyles, somewhat blacke and scaled, which when it is touched turneth himselfe round like a pease. It is commonly called a Cheselip. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 138 It [barley-meal] is very good for the biting of the cheeslips or many-feet worms called Multipedes. 1608 Topsell Serpents 786 Cheeselips, or those creeping vermin with many feet called of some ‘sowes’. 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry iii. xviii. 152 Cheeslip Killimbobs, which being touched gather themselves round like a ball. 1611 Cotgr., Porcelet de S. Anthoine, the vermine called a Ches-lop, or Wood-louse. 1658 Rowland tr. Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1048 When the Chislep rols himself up into a round body. 1717 Dict. Rust., Cheeselip, an insect, the same as the sow or hog louse. Cheselip, a kind of small vermin that lie under stones and tiles. 1721 Bailey, Cheeslip, and Cheslip. |