kebab

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Arabic كَبَاب (kabāb, “roast meat”) and partly from Persian, which has the same form,^{[2][1][3][4][5]} partly through Urdu,^[3][6][4][1] and partly borrowed from Turkish kebap, which itself is from Persian.^[2][7][4] The Turkish word is recorded from the 14th century in Old Anatolian Turkish,^[2] before 1377 in a translation of the story of Joseph.^[8] The OED explains the vowel of the first syllable and the final consonant of the Turkish word by regular sound changes in Ottoman Turkish.^[2] The OED considers the further origin of the Persian and Arabic words uncertain and disputed;^[2] the Shorter Oxford suggests the Arabic word may come ultimately from Persian,^[5] while Nişanyan derives it from Aramaic כבבא (kbabā), of the same meaning, related to Akkadian kabābu (“to roast, to burn”).^[8] Wiktionary notes that cevapi is a doublet.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The dish of seasoned meat cut into pieces, skewered and roasted over a fire: 1675, in John Covel's diary of a voyage to the Levant, under the form the OED files as kabob;^[2] the spelling kebab is first recorded in 1738, in Thomas Shaw's Travels in Barbary and the Levant.^[2] Hoad dates the word to the 17th century, as cabob,^[6] and Dictionary.com to 1665–75;^[7] Etymonline gives 1783.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that English sources up to the mid 19th century often show forms in ka- from travellers in Arabic- and Persian-speaking lands and forms in ke- or ki- from Turkish-speaking areas, though not always.^[2] From 1813 kebab also meant a single skewer of seasoned meat, and later of fish or vegetables;^[2] the variant kabob could mean, from 1735, one of the pieces of meat on it.^[2] Between 1699 and 1846 kabob was also used for a joint of lamb roasted whole with herbs.^[2] The verb, to thread food on a skewer, is recorded from 1973, and figuratively, to criticize someone sharply, from 1989;^[2] the variant verb kabob goes back to 1747, in Hannah Glasse's Art of Cookery.^[2]

Timeline

• 1675 – a dish of skewered, roasted pieces of meat, as kabob.^[2]
• 1735 – one of the pieces of meat in the dish.^[2]
• 1813 – a skewer of seasoned meat served on the skewer.^[2]
• 1973 – verb, to thread food on a skewer.^[2]
• 1989 – verb, figurative, to criticize sharply.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dish of small pieces of seasoned meat, often with vegetables, threaded on a skewer and grilled; also, one such skewer: We ordered lamb kebabs with rice.^[3][10][2]

Verb

1. To thread pieces of food on a skewer.^[2]
2. (figurative) To criticize a person sharply.^[2]

Word family

• shish kebab

Related words

• kabob
• doner kebab

Usage notes

The word is also spelled kebob, kabob and the older cabob;^{[10][5][7][3]} kabob is chiefly American.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Nişanyan, Sevan, Nişanyan Sözlük: Çağdaş Türkçenin Etimolojisi (online edition)
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster