From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
1. a North African grain, granular semolina. 2. a dish made in Algeria and Morocco with semolina or barley, and in Tunisia with green wheat. The name is derived from the Arabic kouskous. There's some doubt about the meaning of the word. Some experts believe "couscous" meant food in a bird's beak used to feed its young. Another possible origin is from the Gallic form of rac keskes (meaning, "to pound until small") or phonetically from the words koskos, keuscass, koskosou and kouskous, used in different parts of North Africa to describe a cooking pot in which semolina is prepared.
