hummus

Hummus (, ; ḥummuṣ, "chickpeas"), also spelled hommus or houmous, is a Middle Eastern dip, spread, or savory dish made from cooked, mashed chickpeas blended with tahini, lemon juice, and garlic. The standard garnish in the Middle East includes olive oil, a few whole chickpeas, parsley, and paprika. Popular in Middle Eastern cuisine, it is usually eaten as a dip, with pita bread. In the West, it is now produced industrially, and is often served as a snack or appetizer with crackers. Etymology and spelling The word hummus is Arabic 'chickpeas'. The full name of the prepared spread in Arabic is 'chickpeas with tahini'. The colloquial Arabic word is a variant of the Arabic or which may be derived from the Aramaic language, corresponding to the Syriac word for chickpeas: . The word entered the English language around the mid-20th century from the Arabic or via its borrowing for the name of the dish in . Some claim that it was mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, in as ḥōmeṣ "vinegar", which can be derived from the word / ḥimṣā for chickpeas; however, linguists Pelio Fronzaroli (1971) and Leonid Kogan (2011) derive Hebrew ḥomeṣ "vinegar" from Proto-Semitic root *ḥmṣ̂- "to be sour", whence also Jewish Palestinian Aramaic ḥmʕ and Arabic ḥāmiḍ "to be sour; acid". Spelling of the word in English can be inconsistent, though most major dictionaries from American and British publishers give hummus as the primary spelling. Some American dictionaries give hommos as an alternative, while British dictionaries give houmous or hoummos.