Parmesan takes its name from Parma, a region in northern Italy where this cheese originated. Today, only cheese that is actually made in Parma is allowed by the European Court of Justice to be called parmesan, a restriction that also applies to Parma ham. Parma, in turn, probably acquired its name from parma, meaning shield, a word adopted into Latin, but which is likely Etruscan in origin. (The Romans adopted many arms-related words from Etruscan, a non-Indo-European language that was eventually superceded entirely by Latin.) One alternative spelling for Parmesan is Parmigiana, which is actually the more authentically “Italian” form of the word. The dish melanzane alia parmigiana, more properly known as Parmigiana di melanzane, actually has nothing to do with parmigiana, parmesan, or parma. Instead, the parmigiana in the food name is a corruption of the word palmigiana, meaning shutter: the overlapping slices of eggplant in the dish resemble the overlapping slats of a shutter.