“This Is Called Ḥaliq”: On the Etymology of a Jewish Food Term

Descriptions of the Passover evening service in Gaonic writings of the late ninth and early tenth centuries include the word ḥaliq as an alternative term for ḥaroset, a sweet and sour dipping sauce made from fruit and nuts. Through a diachronic view of ḥaroset in both the Greco-Roman context of the rabbinic Passover meal and the ʿAbbasid context of Gaonic Judeo-Arabic writing, I argue that the etymology of ḥaliq should be derived ultimately from the Latin allec, referring to a fermented fish sauce that was an essential ingredient of the dipping sauces from which ḥaroset evolved. I conclude with a survey of how ḥaliq (and words derived from it) was maintained as a term for ḥaroset in Jewish languages around the world from the Middle Ages until the present day.