Stilton, n.
Etymology: < Stilton, the name of a village in Cambridgeshire (formerly Huntingdonshire, on the Great North Road from London): see below.
a. Stilton cheese n. a rich quality of cheese made at various places in Leicestershire; so called from having been originally largely sold to travellers at a coaching inn at Stilton; orig. also applied to similar cheeses made elsewhere, but since 1969 restricted to that made in the counties of Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham by members of the Stilton Cheese Makers Association.
1736 N. Bailey Dict. Domesticum at Cheese
Stilton Cheese. Take two Gallons of morning milk [etc.].
a1864 J. Clare in Sel. Poems & Prose
(1967)
25
He..seldom got astride of a saddle save when he gave old Dobbin a holiday from the plough to carry his Dame to the Fair to sell her Stilton cheese.
1904 Cent. Mag. Feb. 534/2
I'll..show you brass that is brass, all green in the creases, like Stilton cheese.
1930 L. G. D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs 1st Ser. ii. 30
In the 'fifties and early 'sixties [in New Zealand] they got two shillings a pound for their butter, tenpence for cheese, and eighteen-pence for stilton cheese.
1969 Trade Marks Jrnl. 5 Feb. 234/1
Stilton 831,407 Class 29. Cheese. The Chairman, The Stilton Cheese Makers Association, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.—28th Feb. 1962.
1973 Leicester Mercury 24 Dec. 8/1
The public in the States is being..misled into purchasing the Purity brand of Stilton cheese in mistaken belief that it is the genuine product produced in England.
1736—1973(Hide quotations)
b. ellipt. as n. = Stilton cheese. Also fig.
1826 E. Craven Mem. Margravine of Anspach i. v. 190
The Margrave had at his table good cream, and Stilton, or Berkeley hundred, made under my direction.
1836 Dickens Sketches by Boz 2nd Ser. 253
Mark the air with which he gloats over that Stilton.
1867 J. R. Lowell My Study Windows
(1871)
70
We prefer a full, old-fashioned meal, with its side-dishes of spicy gossip, and its last relish, the Stilton of scandal, so it be not too high.
1913 Times 9 Aug. 19/6
Cheese,..finest Cheshire and cheddar, 72s. to 74s.;..Stiltons, 10d. to 1s. per lb.
slang.
1859 J. C. Hotten Dict. Slang 102
‘That's the stilton’, or ‘it is not the stilton’, i.e. that is quite the thing, or that is not quite the thing;—polite rendering of ‘that is not the cheese’.
1826—1913(Hide quotations)
c. attrib.
1966 Daily Tel. 15 Nov. 15/2
The Stilton recipe..goes back to the 18th century... In seeking the trade mark, Stilton makers expressed fears that the same fate would befall the Stilton..as happened to the Cheddar.
1969 Daily Tel. 11 Apr. 19/5
Yesterday,..the Stilton Cheesemakers Association..obtained their trademark.
1971 Sunday Times 28 Mar. (Colour Suppl.) 36/1
Much the best way of tackling the half cheese on the table is with a knife with a long sharp pointed blade—not a Stilton spoon.
1973 Leicester Mercury 24 Dec. 8/1
(heading)
Stilton men up in arms over ‘spurious cheese’.
1966—1973(Hide quotations)