The term chickpea was initially documented in the 1542 Bibliotheca Eliotae, one of the earliest English language dictionaries. At that time, it was written as chiche pease, and it has also appeared in various forms such as ciche-peasen, chich pea, and chice peasen, among other variations. While I have previously discussed the origin of the term pea, I would like to delve deeper into the origin of the term chick. Contrary to popular belief, it has no connection to poultry; instead, it is derived from the Old French word chiche, which also meant “chickpea” (making the pea component redundant). This term can be traced back to the Latin word cicer, which means “pea” in a general sense and likely originates from a Proto-Indo-European term resembling kiker, meaning “pale”. The single word chickpea is used over ten times more frequently than when hyphenated or with a space, and it is approximately twice as popular as the term garbanzo.
