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ba·kla·va

(bäklə-vä′, bä′klə-vä)

A dessert made of paper-thin layers of pastry, chopped nuts, and honey.

[Ultimately (partly via Greek and Armenian) from Ottoman Turkish, possibly colloquial alteration of baklavī, chain mail (perhaps because a tray of baklava cut into lozenges somewhat resembles chain mail), from Ottoman naval jargon bakla, chain link, from Ottoman Turkish bakla, fava bean (the oblong shape of a chain link being likened to that of a bean), from Arabic baqla, leguminous plant, from baqala, to sprout; akin to Akkadian baqālu, to malt, sprout, and Ge'ez baq^wala, to sprout.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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