Etymology of the word “dolma” »: The origin of the name dolma is disputed. The word dolma, whose use dates back to the end of the 19th century, is often associated with the Turkish verb doldurmak (“to fill”) or dolmak (“to be filled”) and with the Ottoman Turkish word طولمه (tuallamuh) which literally designates “some thing that is make us ". Armenian linguists claim that the word derives from the Urartian word toli, which means " FIG leaf ", thus dating the term back to the kingdom of Urartu dating from the 9th and 6th centuries BC. The Armenians would have borrowed this term, tolimis, to designate this dish consisting of “ meat in a fig leaf. Over time, tolimis transformed into tolim, then tolima, and finally tolma. Iranian sources claim that the dish was already known as early as the 18th century.
We thus obtain the names: տոլմա (tolma) or դոլմա (dolma) in Armenian, dolma in Azerbaijani and Turkish, dolâma in Turkmen, tulma in Tatar, ტოლმა (tolma) in Georgian, ντολμάς (ndolmás) or ν τολμαδάκι (ndolmadáki) in Greek, دوُلما (dolma) in Arabic, دۆلمە (dolme) in Kurdish, دلمه (dolmeh) in Persian. To avoid the term dolma, Armenians sometimes use circumlocutions such as tzitayoughov derevi patoog (literally " olive oil-sheet-wrapped"). When they do not contain meat, they are called yalancı dolma (“false dolma”) in Turkish.
Other terms exist to designate this dish. It is called "leaf" when it is they which are stuffed: yaprak in Turkish, japrak in Albanian, yaprekh in Aramaic, یاپراخ (yaprakh) in Kurdish, يبرق (yabraq) in Aleppo, برگ (barg) in Persian, terepavat (" wrapped in foil") in Armenian.
Sometimes, it is the method of preparation, “stuffing”, which inspired the name: محشي (maḥshi) or محشي ورق عنب (maḥshī waraq 'inab, “ FIG leaf stuffed") in Arabic, γεμιστά (yemista) in Greek, ממולא (memulah) in Hebrew, rellenada in Ladino, sarma ("wrapped") in Turkish, litsk ("stuffed"), patoog ("wrapped") in Armenian.