It is one of the many types ofkebab, a range of meat dishes originating in theMiddle East. In North American English, the wordkebab alone often refers to shish kebab, though outside of North America,kebab may also meandoner kebab.
It is traditionally made oflamb[3] but there are also versions with various kinds of meat, poultry, or fish.[4] InArmenia, shish kebab and the vegetables served with it are grilled separately, normally not on the same skewer.[5][6]
Shish kebab is an English rendering ofTurkish:şiş (sword or skewer) andkebap (roasted meat dish), which dates from around the beginning of the 20th century.[7][8] According to theOxford English Dictionary, its earliest known publication in English is in the 1914 novelOur Mr. Wrenn bySinclair Lewis.[7][9]
The wordkebab alone was already present in English by the late 17th century, from theArabic:كَبَاب (kabāb), partly through Urdu, Persian and Turkish.[10] EtymologistSevan Nişanyan states that the word has the equivalent meaning of "frying / burning" withkabābu in the oldAkkadian language, andkbabā (כבבא) inAramaic.[11] The oldest known example ofşiş, probably originally meaning a pointed stick, comes from the 11th-centuryDīwān Lughāt al-Turk, attributed toMahmud of Kashgar.[12][13]
