the.com/fava bean

means A broad, flat green or brown bean (also called a broad bean) that's shelled from a thick pod and usually has its individual skin removed before cooking, prized for its dense, earthy flavor.

from 'Fava' is simply the Italian word for the bean, traced back to Latin 'faba' — a word so old it shows up in Roman family names (the Fabius clan supposedly earned their name from bean-farming ancestors). The bean itself, Vicia faba, was eaten across the Mediterranean and Near East long before Rome, making it one of the oldest cultivated legumes around. English picked up 'fava' from Italian/Latin, while the older native name for the same plant, 'broad bean,' just describes its wide, flat pod.