There was a time in the Before Times - before kids, before my commute went 45 minutes in the opposite direction, before Covid and that full-time remote status that became permanent - when my wife and I would commute together from our place in the semi-rural exurbs into Minneapolis together. It was about 45 minutes each way, so we had a lot of time to talk.
On one of these many talks, we were discussing how on our honeymoon we had bought some Laughing Cow cheese in Spain and how amusing I found it that over there it was called “La Vaca que Ríe” and in it’s original France it is called “La Vache qui Rit”. Something about the literalness of the translation tickled me.
As we were talking, a realization hit me. “Hey babe, why are queso and fromage so different of words? Vaca and vache are obviously cognates, why not the words for ‘cheese’?”
queso: m cheese
From Old Spanish queso, from Latin cāseus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kwh₂et- (“to ferment”).
fromage: m cheese
From Middle French froumaige, formage, from Old French formage, from Early Medieval Latin fōrmāticum, from Latin fōrma (“shape/mould”).
So it turns out that yes, both languages have their word for cheese in Latin roots befitting them being Romance languages. One took the path of borrowing the root of the word itself, and the other the path of making the thing.
Which, interestingly, is how you get two synonyms for cheese in Italian - cacio (ie cacio e pepe) and formaggio (ie pizza quattro formaggio). One can readily see where queso/cacio and fromage/formaggio are each related.
And in case you’re wondering, yes, the English “cheese” also has its roots in the Latin caseus.1
From Middle English chese, from Old English cēse, from Latin caseus