angelotn.

Etymology: < Middle French angelot (French angelot ) little angel (late 12th cent. in Old French), a gold coin first struck by Philip VI, bearing on the obverse the image of an angel (1340), an Anglo-Gallic gold coin struck by Henry VI, bearing on the obverse the image of an angel (1427), kind of small cheese made in various regions of France (c1490; a1630 denoting a soft cheese made in Normandy), a gold coin struck by Louis XI, bearing an image of the archangel Michael killing a dragon (16th cent.) < Old French angele angel n. + -ot -ot suffix. Compare post-classical Latin angelotus , denoting a gold coin (1551 or earlier; < French). Sense 3 is not paralleled in French and may show a different word; compare earlier angelique n.The precise semantic motivation of the French cheese name is unclear, although uses of the name of the cheese punning on the name of the gold coin are attested from at least a1506. Various suggestions have been offered to explain development from the name of the coin, e.g. that the cheese was probably so called on account of its small size and golden colour, or that it was originally stamped with the coin. Alternatively, it has been suggested that it was originally named augelot after the Pays d'Auge, and later (perhaps folk-etymologically) altered to angelot; however, this explanation is now generally rejected (see discussion in Französisches etymol. Wörterbuch XXIV. 563/2 at angelus).