Humous in Zante

[lwatcay]

I have just been to Zante on holiday and was suprised that nowhere served humous, I thought this was a Greek dish??

[Quizmonster]

The word itself is actually of Turkish origin, but - being neighbours, if not exactly neighbourly! - I'd have thought the Greeks might have imported it.

[Xollob]

I beg to differ, QM.
[Cue sharp intake of breath throughout the AB universe]
I think the word is of Arabic origin. See Answers.com. The dish is served throughout the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean, so I think lwatcay may have been unlucky. 

[maxi29]

Were you on holiday in a big tourist area? One of my work colleages has just come back from Majorca complaining bitterly about the food. Apparently, he found it impossible to find any Spanish food as there were only English restaurants; I remember the same thing happening to me in Torremolinos. I don't know Zante but perhaps the restaurants offer only what they think sells to tourists.

[Quizmonster]

Well, X, both The Oxford English English Dictionary and Chambers Dictionary suggest it is of Turkish origin. I'll stick with them, I think, rather than Answers.com! Perhaps it was invented by a villager on the Iraq/Turkey border and spread into both languages simultaneously. Cheers

[Xollob]

QM, you've caught me in an argumentative mood!

yourDictionary.com (one of your links, if I remember correctly) gives it as Arabic. I also think the fact that hummus refers to both the chickpea and the spread is an argument for this theory (the Turkish for chickpea is nohut). What we refer to as hummus is (normally) hummus bi tahini, i.e. with sesame paste.

And whilst hummus is indeed also a Turkish dish, it is much more prevalent in the Arab border regions, particularly around Antakya. Hardly convincing proof linguistically, I know, but these are the findings of about 25 years' in-depth research on the subject, so I just thought I'd share them with you. Şerefe!

[Quizmonster]

You are probably right, X, but I'm afraid you're going to have to 'argue' alone. The point, as far as the questioner is concerned, is that hummus is not specifically a Greek dish.
I simply took my response from the appropriate entry in TOED, which reads: "ad Turk.humus mashed chickpeas" (with 'ad' meaning 'adapted from'). Neither dictionary I referred to previously even mentions Arabic...so nor did I!
Yes, Yourdictionary is a site I frequently recommend, but that is only because TOED is not available free online...were it so, I would refer people solely to it.