You know what a cheesemonger is, but are you a true turophile (lover of cheese)? Use this handy vocabulary list to impress your friends like the cynosure (celebrity, big cheese) you are.

Alpage: A French term for the alpine fields where animals graze during the summer months, which enhances the flavor and complexity of their milk and the resulting cheese

Beestings: The first milk a cow produces after calving; high in protein, beestings is specifically used, for example, in Spain for the production of Armada, a strong, semifirm cheese

Caquelon: A stoneware, ceramic, enameled cast iron, or porcelain cooking vessel used in the preparation of fondue

Cendre: A term indicating that a cheese (commonly made with young goats’ milk) is sprinkled with dark vegetable ash

Daisy: A style of cheese, traditionally a 22-pound wheel of cheddar coated with wax and cheesecloth

Eyes: Holes within cheese, such as Swiss, that are formed by trapped gas as a result of fermentation during the curing process

Ferme/fermier: A French term for farm-produced cheeses

Fondu: The French term for processed cheese; not to be confused with fondue, the Swiss dish for dipping made with melted cheese

Gem: A style of cheddar weighing approximately three pounds

Guillotine: A contraption used to cut clean wedges, especially useful for blue or other soft cheeses

Hâloir: A drying room where cheeses are left to mature for a few weeks to 24 months or longer

Hoops: Forms used to press curds into shape after salting and before aging, as with Grafton Cheddar

La religieuse: French for “nun,” the crisp, salty, waferlike layer of cheese that remains at the bottom of the fondue pot, perhaps from a legend about monks saving these remains for the sisters

Longhorn: A cylindrical style of cheese, usually Colby or Colby-Jack, that weighs 12 to 13 pounds and measures 13 inches long with a 6-inch diameter (a half moon is a split version of a Longhorn-style cheese)

Midget: A style of cheese, usually cheddar, weighing approximately 12 pounds

Pasta filata: Italian for “spun paste,” a process in which curds are heated and then stretched or kneaded before being molded into a desired shape to create elastic cheeses (mozzarella, provolone, and scamorza) that stretch when cooked or melted

Paste/pâté: The interior of a cheese beneath its outer rind, which can range in texture from soft and creamy to firm and smooth to hard, dry, and crunchy

Pavé: A French term used to describe a shape of cheese that resembles paving stones in country towns

Persille: French for “parsleyed,” which refers to delicately veined blue cheeses, such as Roquefort and Stilton, in which mold distribution resembles sprigs of parsley

Print: A rectangular cheese that has been cut from a 40-pound block; normally a 10-pound loaf

Soapy: A taste sensation caused by long-chain fatty acids as a result of excessive milk-fat breakdown in the cheese

Thermalization: The process of heating milk to less than 160°F for fewer than 15 seconds prior to cheese production—at a lower temperature over a shorter period of time than during pasteurization

Tomme: A French term indicating a small round of cheese; smaller tommes are known as tommettes; also a generic name given to a class of cheese produced mainly in the French Alps from skim milk left over after the cream has been removed to produce butter and richer cheese (thus, tommes are often low in fat)

Tyrosemiophilia: The hobby of collecting cheese labels, as mentioned by Thomas Pynchon in his debut novel, V.

Veining: The mold in blue cheeses, also called bluing

Weeping: A term that describes the release of moisture from the eyes of Swiss-type cheeses, caused by proteins being broken down during ripening; weeping often indicates that a cheese has achieved peak ripeness and will exhibit full flavor, or conversely that it has been stored at too warm a temperature

Young: Semifirm, firm, or hard cheeses that have been cured for two weeks to 30 days; such cheeses usually exhibit mild flavors

Truckle: A small barrel-shaped cheese, especially cheddar (also, to behave obsequiously: "She despised her husband who truckled her">

Ubriaco: Italian for “drunk” and a general term for wine- washed cheeses traditionally made of cow’s milk in northern Italy but produced increasingly elsewhere

Compiled by Amanda Rae Busch