Etymograph

English

smearcase

Smearcase comes from Pennsylvania German Schmierkaes ‘cottage cheese, smearcase’.

  1. Pennsylvania GermanmodernSchmierkaes1‘cottage cheese, smearcase’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1909smearcase1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English smearcase
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1909, Eva Greene Fuller, The Up-To-Date Sandwich Book: 400 Ways to Make a Sandwich: “GERMAN CLUB SANDWICH: Thin slices of pumpernickel, rye, and…”.

Lineage

  1. Pennsylvania GermanmodernSchmierkaesWiktionary, English smearcase‘cottage cheese, smearcase’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1909smearcaseWiktionary, English smearcase. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1909, Eva Greene Fuller, The Up-To-Date Sandwich Book: 400 Ways to Make a Sandwich: “GERMAN CLUB SANDWICH: Thin slices of pumpernickel, rye, and…”

The story

In Pennsylvanian usage, borrowed from Pennsylvania German Schmierkaes. (In Texas, presumably from the cognate equivalent in Texas German.)

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Every English word from Pennsylvania German Schmierkaes

Today it means

noun Cottage cheese.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “smearcase”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Pennsylvania German Schmierkaes / smearcase

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