7ommos حمص
Tunisian Derja · noun
“7ommos” (حمص) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning chickpeas.
Meanings
- chickpeas
Usage
7ommos is a collective noun for chickpeas, which feature heavily in Tunisian cooking. They are found in couscous, chorba and above all lablabi. In Tunisian usage, the word means the legume itself, not the tahini purée known by this name elsewhere. A single chickpea is 7ommsa. At the market or the grocer's, people ask for 7ommos yebes (dried chickpeas) or mfawwer (cooked). The expression barcha 7ommos, "lots of chickpeas", is typical when ordering lablabi.
Example
حطّ شويّة حمّص في الكسكسي.
7ott chwaya 7ommos fil kosksi.
“Put some chickpeas in the couscous.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “7ommos” but also “hommos”, “7ommes”, “houmous” and “7omos”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 7 is ha (ح), a breathy h from the throat.
Type “7ommos” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “chickpeas”: 7mmes in Moroccan.