Middle Eastern condiment made from toasted ground hulled tahin. Tahini is used in the cuisines of the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean, the South Caucasus, as well as parts of North Africa. Look up tahini in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
The word tahini appeared in English by the late 1930s. The oldest mention of sesame is in a cuneiform document written 4000 years ago that describes the custom of serving the gods sesame wine. Tahini is mentioned as an ingredient of hummus kasa, a recipe transcribed in an anonymous 13th-century Arabic cookbook, Kitab Wasf al-Atima al-Mutada. Sichuan cuisine uses it in some recipes for dandan noodles.