garbanzo

noun

gar·​ban·​zo gär-ˈbän-(ˌ)zō 

 also  -ˈban-

plural garbanzos

: chickpea

Examples of garbanzo in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Surprised because black garbanzos are heavier and denser than traditional garbanzos, and the color, Sando thought, would be too odd. —Caron Golden, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Apr. 2025

The dressing for the antipasto salad works equally as well with the more simple, garbanzo and black bean salad. —Rita Nader Heikenfeld, The Enquirer, 25 May 2024

As the street food spread through the Arab world, ingredients shifted with larders and tastes: Palestinian cooks tend to prefer solely chickpeas in their falafel; the Lebanese often combine garbanzos and foul. —Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, 4 May 2024

The soup is coconut curry garbanzo; the salad has collards, arugula, beets, and a yogurt dill dressing. —Bon Appétit Contributor, Bon Appétit, 7 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Spanish (earlier usually garvanço), alteration (perhaps by blending with garroba "carob, algaroba" or gálbana "kind of pea") of earlier arvanço, ervanço, of uncertain origin

Note: Recorded as arbānsuš or arbānšuš among Hispanic words in the Arabic pharmacopoeia Kitāb al-Mustaʻīnī of Yūsuf bin Isḥāq ibn Baklāriš (ca. 1106). As noted by Joan Coromines (Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico), Greek erébinthos "chickpea" is unlikely to be the immediate source; the change i > a is ad hoc, and the outcome of -th- as z/ç is questionable. The initial arv-/erv- is comparable with a widespread group of words presumably of Mediterranean substratal origin—in addition to Greek erébinthos and órobos "the vetch Vicia ervilia," there are Latin ervum "the vetch Vicia ervilia," Germanic *arw(a)-(a)itō "pea" (whence Old High German araweiz, Old Saxon eriwit, erit, Old Norse ertr), Middle Irish orbaind "grains." The suffix of the Spanish word (*-antio?) is of obscure origin.

First Known Use

1712, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing garbanzo

• garbanzo bean

Kids Definition

garbanzo

noun

gar·​ban·​zo gär-ˈbän-zō 

plural garbanzos

: chickpea

called also garbanzo bean