From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
Originally a French word, meaning "twice cooked" (from bis, "twice", and cuire, "to cook"). So diverse are the foods now called biscuit in different countries of the world that one can only guess at the composition of the first biscuit. In most European countries, it refers to a sweet confection. In France, "biscuit" is a simple sponge cake or jelly roll, or it may mean ladyfingers (biscuit à la cuillère). In Spanish, bizcocho is a sponge cake. In England, a biscuit is a hard, thin, flat cookie or cracker. In North America, a biscuit is usually a quick bread, such as a baking powder biscuit or tea biscuit.
