What is the etymology of the phrase "Who cut the cheese?" ?

Question

I know there are several kinds of cheeses that stink, but was there a particular cheese and/or cutting process that led to the use of the phrase for asking "who farted?"

Answer 1

The term was originated when someone sliced

into a new wheel of cheese, but most likely

a brick of Limburger cheese... which stinks

terribly despite it being fresh cheese.

Answer 2

CUT THE CHEESE -- Since the late 1800s "cut" in various phrases meant "to expel intestinal gas." 1899 - To cut one's finger, is to break wind. "Cut the cheese" is placed in 1965-70 by this source. "Dictionary of American Regional English," Volume 1 by Frederic G. Cassidy (1985, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England). Another reference says the phrase "cut the cheese" was used earlier but with a different meaning: 1895 Gore, Student Slang, 17: Cut no cheese. To have no weight or value. From "Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Volume 1, A-G" by J.E. Lighter, Random House, New York, 1994. A third source says the expression originated in the "Mainstream 1950s." From "Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang" by Tom Dalzell (Merriam-Webster Inc., Springfield, Md., 1996).

Just for completeness, it must derive from the fact that the rind on some cheese reduces the odour, so that brie or suchlike, once cut is much smellier. When I was in a student house, we had a cheese that had been going cheap and smelt so such we kept it in a tuppaware box - you most definitely could have used 'opened the cheese box' as a metaphor for farting.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board...

(US, idiomatic, euphemistic) To flatulate.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cut_the_ch...

cut the cheese (Vulgar Slang)

To expel intestinal gas.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q...

http://psy.otago.ac.nz/r_oshea/FUN%20STU...