Most Germans love it but the Duden doesn’t. In Berlin you can indulge in it at every corner but in the 1.216 pages of the standard German Wörterbuch you search for it in vain. Maybe, the experts have not agreed on its spelling while many agree on its taste. Hommos or Hommus is a dish made of cooked and mashed chickpeas with Olivenöl, Zitronensaft and Salz. For Americans this dish is from the Middle East; for Europeans it is from Nahen Osten (Near East) which makes sense, geographically speaking. On menus or signs in Berlin restaurants or Imbissstuben (yes, with 3 s) you can read as many spellings as there are recipes: Houmus, Hummos, Hommous, even Humus. Der Humus means topsoil and should be interesting for gardeners only, not to gourmets.
The leo dictionary engine comes up with two spellings: Hommos and Hommus.
Recently, we wondered during a lesson in Kunger Kiez (wo ist das?) about the gender of this dish. Is it die Hommus? Nein, das klingt nicht gut. Der Hommos? Das Hommus? Beides ist korrekt. This is not the only noun that doesn’t know its gender identity. There are several nouns that can be used with different articles without changing their meaning.
Zum Beispiel:
der/das Keks (cookie)
der/das Liter
der/das Virus
der/das Laptop (as long as it works; otherwise you can attribute a curse word)
der/das Dschungel
der/das Bonbon (candy)
der/das Radar
der/das Jogurt
Guten Appetit!
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