Chickpea has nothing to do with chicks — it literally means "pea-pea," a tautology created when English forgot that chiche already meant pea. Cicero was named for one.
A round, beige legume widely used in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Mediterranean cuisines. The plant (Cicer arietinum) or its seed, also called garbanzo bean.
From Middle English chiche (from Old French chiche, from Latin cicer, 'chickpea') + pea (added later as the original word was no longer understood). The 'chick' element has nothing to do with baby chickens Key roots: cicer (Latin: "chickpea").
The 'chick' in chickpea has nothing to do with baby chickens — it comes from French chiche, from Latin cicer (chickpea). The famous Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero got his cognomen from cicer — one of his ancestors reportedly had a wart on his nose shaped like a chickpea. When English speakers no longer recognized chiche as meaning 'pea,' they added 'pea' to it, creating