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One of their misinterpretations of the Scriptures concerned cooking on the Shabbat. The Torah says, "You shall not kindle fire in any of your dwelling places on the Sabbath day" (Exodus 35:3). The Sadducees understood this verse as a prohibition against having a fire burning on the Shabbat. Therefore, every Shabbat they would sit in the cold and darkness, and would eat only cold food.
In truth, the Torah is only banning the act of kindling a fire on Shabbat -- it is not prohibiting having on Shabbat a flame which was ignited beforehand.
The Jews dubbed as The Pharisees -- literally: the "separationists," remained loyal to the Rabbinic Torah and separated themselves from the errant Sadducees -- demonstrated their allegiance to the Oral Law by making a point of eating a hot dish on Shabbat afternoon.
In fact, many argue that the word "Cholent" comes from the Hebrew word "Shelahn," which means that it "rested overnight" on the fire.
Aside for the technical reasons for eating Cholent, we also must note that it is a tasty dish (which in itself is a good reason for the custom...), and there's nothing like a Shabbat afternoon nap which follows a plate of Cholent (wow! So many good reasons)!
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Chau (pronounced show) means hot in french. Lent means slow in french. hence the word means "slow-hot"
over years of translations and transliterations the word stuck -- cholent
