Everyday LifeGreek → English
Pita
/ˈpiːtə/noun
A round flatbread that splits open into a pocket.
The Greek roots
πίτα
píta
pie, flat bread
Literally: “pie”
Follow a root:πίτα1 word
The story of the word
In Greek the word covers far more than the bread in a souvlaki: σπανακόπιτα is a spinach pie, and a πίτα can be sweet, layered, baked in a tin or slapped flat. Where the Greek word itself comes from is genuinely unsettled, with proposals running from Byzantine Greek to the same murky source as Italian pizza. English took it in the 20th century along with the food.
- How it travelled
- Byzantine Greek → Modern Greek → English
- First recorded
- 20th century
Same family
spanakopitatiropita
In a sentence
Warm the pita for ten seconds or it tears when you fill it.