Also 7 cuscus, 9 kus-kus, kous-kous; 7 cuscusu, cooscoosoos, 8 cuscussu, -cosoo, -casow, 9 coos-, couscoosoo, couscousou, kouskoussou. [a. F. couscous (also improp. couscou, couscoussou), a. Arab. kuskus, f. kaskasa to pound or bruise small.] An African dish made of flour granulated, and cooked by steaming over the vapor of meat or broth.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, 142. In winter they [of Fez] haue sodden flesh, together with a kinde of meate called Cuscusu.
1695. Motteux, St. Olon’s Morocco, 87. Their standing Dish is some Cooscoosoos, a Paste made with fine Flower, which … has been boil’d with some young Pidgeons, Fowls, or Mutton.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Cuscasow, the name of a Moorish dish eaten in Egypt.
1759. trans. Adanson’s Voy. Senegal, 55. They sat cross-legged … round a large wooden bowl full of couscous; which is a thick-grained pap, made of two sorts of millet.
c. 1790. Willock, Voy., 112. Bringing us a dish … called cuscosoo. It is made of flour, wet … after which they rub it between their hands, till it forms itself … like barley-corns…. Underneath it they stew a fowl, mutton, or beef, with onions … the steam of which gives a nice relish to the small particles above.
1849. W. S. Mayo, Kaloolah, 258. A large bowl of cooscoosoo.
1874. F. W. Pavy, Treat. Food (1875), 243. The Kous-kous, Couscous, or Couscousou, of the Arabs, which forms a national food in Algeria.
¶ See also CUSCUS.
