falafel

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic فَلَافِل (falāfil). Doublet of peepul and pepper.

noun

1. (uncountable) A Middle Eastern food in the form of balls made from chickpeas or broad beans and other ingredients, often served in a pita.
   There's a stall at the market that sells fantastic falafel.
   Lebanese restaurants are especially good for vegetarians, with falafel rolls (pitta bread stuffed with chickpea patties, hummus and tabbouleh) making an inexpensive, filling meal. 2003, Margo Daly, Rough guide to Australia, page 51
   I ate lafa — falafel with all the regular stuffings and sauces wrapped in a pizza size pita instead of being stuffed in it. Etai ordered a regular falafel. My lafiz was twice the size of his falafel and although neither of us could finish the lafiz, we embarked on it together. 2003, Holly M. Moskowitz, Finding Falafel, page 58
2. (countable) A pita with falafel balls as a filling.
   I ate lafa — falafel with all the regular stuffings and sauces wrapped in a pizza size pita instead of being stuffed in it. Etai ordered a regular falafel. My lafiz was twice the size of his falafel and although neither of us could finish the lafiz, we embarked on it together. 2003, Holly M. Moskowitz, Finding Falafel, page 58
   Here, close-cropped future soldiers would learn how to introduce themselves to strangers, the proper way to order a falafel and a Coke, how to shout Get out of the car. 2010, Reza Aslan, How to Win a Cosmic War: Confronting Radical Religions, page 161
   They decided, sotto voce, to go out for a falafel. […] The falafel itself was incidental: it was the array of salds, pickled and fried vegetables, olives and sauces which one stuffed into the pita that made it such an adventure. 2012, Giveon Cornfield, Lilian, page 186
   A beggar, his head swathed in rags, was eating a falafel, bits of cucumber falling out of the pita's corners. He looked askance as Mustafa lumbered by. 2013, Ruchama King Feuerman, In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist, New York Review of Books, page 218
3. (countable) A single falafel ball.
   The stallholder puts salad into an open pita bread, followed by the four falafels, and then liberally covers them with hummus.