For years it has been known in the West as the “Turkish bagel”, but not anymore. Simit – one of Turkey’s culinary staples – is now an official word in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
According to the OED’s online October update, “simit” is one of several new food and drink terms listed in the dictionary. Other new entries include “arancini” (Italian stuffed rice balls) and “goetta” (a German sausage of meat and oatmeal, typically served in fried slices for breakfast).
Simit is described by the dictionary as: “A type of ring-shaped bread roll originating in Turkey, typically coated with molasses and encrusted with sesame seeds before baking,” adding that, “Rolls of this type are widely eaten in Turkey and across the Middle East.”
First published in 1884 by Oxford University Press, the OED claims to be the “definitive record of the English language”, with over 600,000 words and 3 million quotations, spanning over 1,000 years of the spoken English language. In recent years, colloquial terms such as “chillax” and “simples” have also made it into the OED.
