- Also called garbanzo. a widely cultivated plant, Cicer arietinum, of the legume family, bearing pods containing pealike seeds.
- the seeds of this plant, used extensively as a food.
Origin of chickpea
Examples from the Web for chick-pea
A kind of chick-pea, much used in Spain, especially in the olla podrida.Roman Catholicism in Spain
The chick-pea has not been found in the lake-dwellings of Switzerland, Savoy, and Italy.Origin of Cultivated Plants
Alphonse De Candolle
The gram, or chick-pea, and various kinds of pea and vetch are grown intermixed with the wheat.
Parched gram, or chick-pea, is commonly used by Indian travellers as a convenient and readily portable form of food.
The chick-pea, as found by experiment, can be parched over coals in a few moments and thus be made edible.The Laurel Health Cookery
Evora Bucknum Perkins
- a bushy leguminous plant, Cicer arietinum, cultivated for its edible pealike seeds in the Mediterranean region, central Asia, and Africa
- Also called: garbanzo the seed of this plant
Word Origin and History for chick-pea
1712, false singular back-formation from chich-pease (1540s), from French pois chiche, from Latin cicer "pea," of uncertain origin, but with likely cognates in Greek kikerroi "pale," Armenian sisern "chick-pea," Albanian thjer "lentil." For second element, see pease. The Latin plural, cicera, is also the source of Italian cece and was borrowed into Old High German as chihhra (German Kichererbse).