The word biscuit comes from the Latin words bis, meaning twice, and coquere, meaning cooked, which together mean twice-cooked. The name comes from the way it was cooked, as the biscuit was first baked and then slowly dried in an oven.

The reason they wanted the biscuits to be very dry was that sailors needed a food that was portable and long-lasting for sea voyages, as well as filling. The first biscuits were seen in the hands of Egyptian sailors, who for very long and distant voyages asked bakers to bake the biscuits 4 times so that they would not get wet and stay, and they would become so hard that they had to soak them in water to soften them and then use them. From very distant times until 1814, when canning technology came to the market, biscuits played an important role in the naval rations, and for centuries no ship would sail without a load of biscuits, and they were given a daily ration of biscuits.

Of course, biscuits weren't just popular with sailors, Roman soldiers also used them as a ration. Roman biscuits were different: they fried the biscuits after baking and drizzled them with honey.

The Iranian court cooks were the first to add spices and honey to biscuit dough, which made them tastier. During the wars between the Arabs and Spain, these spiced biscuits made their way to Europe.