[citation needed] The word simit comes from Arabic samīd (سميد) "white bread" or "fine flour".

Aramaic: ܩܶܠܽܘܪܳܐ/ܩܸܠܘܿܪܵܐ (qeluro/qelora); Turkish: gevrek;[7][8] South Slavic đevrek, ђеврек, gjevrek, ѓеврек, геврек.

[11] Based on Üsküdar court records (Şer’iyye Sicili) dated 1593,[12] the weight and price of simit was standardized for the first time.

[13] Jean Brindesi's early 19th-century oil paintings about Istanbul daily life show simit sellers on the streets.

Simit is generally served plain, or for breakfast with tea, fruit preserves, or cheese or ayran.

In other parts of the Middle East, in Egypt it is consumed with boiled eggs and/or duggah, which is a mixture of herbs used as condiments.

[citation needed] Girde (Uygur: Гирде), is a type of bread baked on the walls of tandoori oven, that is very similar to simit, and that the Uyghurs in China see as a characteristic item in their culture-specific kitchen.