Small pieces of meat and vegetables grilled on a skewer; any of various Middle Eastern dishes of seasoned grilled meat.
From Arabic kabāb, possibly derived from Aramaic kababu meaning 'to burn' or 'char.' The word spread throughout the Ottoman Empire and entered various European languages through Turkish şiş kebabı. English adopted it in the 17th century through contact with Ottoman Turkish cuisine, initially referring specifically to skewered grilled meat.
This grilled meat dish name might come from an ancient Aramaic word meaning 'to burn'! The cooking method was so popular throughout the Arabic-speaking world that the word spread with Ottoman expansion, and now 'kebab' shops are found on street corners worldwide.
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