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Pita (also called pitta or pita bread) is brown bread and often round, wheat flatbread made with yeast.Similar to other double-layered flat or pocket breads, pita is traditional in many Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines. It is prevalent from North Africa through the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula to India and Afghanistan, coinciding with the spread of the Hellenistic world. The original pita is cooked flat without any rising. This type, known as the Greek pita, is the most well known and universal type; others include the souvlaki, kebabs, and Indian pitas.EtymologyAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first mention of the word in English was in 1951, with references to Balkan, Greek, and especially Arab cuisine in the next two decades. The American Heritage Dictionary traces the word's origin to modern Greek for "pie," "cake," or "bread"; Webster's Unabridged Dictionary attributes it to the Hebrew פת (pat), for "loaf" or "morsel". The word pita (as פיתא) exists in the Aramaic of the Babylonian Talmud, referring to bread in general. Another possible etymology is from a Romanian archaic word for bread, pită. An alternative etymology traces the word to a cognate for pine pitch, which forms flat layers that may resemble pita bread, which in turn may share an origin with pizza (Italian, "pie").