pepper

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See also: Pepper

English

Peppercorns (2).
Peppers (capsicum).

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English peper, piper, from Old English piper, from Proto-West Germanic *pipar, from Latin piper, from an Indo-Aryan source; compare Sanskrit पिप्पलि (pippali, “long pepper”). The name was given to the capsicum fruit because of its unusual spicy taste, not unlike the Old World spice. Cognate with Scots pepar, Saterland Frisian Pieper, West Frisian piper, Dutch peper, German Low German Peper, German Pfeffer, Danish peber, Swedish peppar, Icelandic pipar. Doublet of falafel and peepul.

Pronunciation

Noun

pepper (countable and uncountable, plural peppers)

  1. A plant of the family Piperaceae.
  2. (uncountable) A spice prepared from the fermented, dried, unripe berries of this plant.
  3. (UK, US, Ireland and Canada) A bell pepper, a fruit of the capsicum plant: red, green, yellow or white, hollow and containing seeds, and in very spicy and mild varieties.
  4. (baseball) A game used by baseball players to warm up where fielders standing close to a batter rapidly return the batted ball to be hit again
    Some ballparks have signs saying "No pepper games".
  5. (cryptography) A randomly-generated value that is added to another value (such as a password) prior to hashing. Unlike a salt, a new one is generated for each value and it is held separately from the value.
  6. (boxing, slang) A beating; a thrashing.
    • 1906, Henry Downes Miles, Pugilistica, page 61:
      He means to snatch the laurels from his brow, / At all his boasted pluck and prowess smile, / And give him pepper in superior style.
    • 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1848, →OCLC:
      [T]he Chicken had been tapped, and bunged, and had received pepper, and had been made groggy, and had come up piping, and had endured a complication of similar strange inconveniences, until he had been gone into and finished.
  7. (MLE, slang) A shotgun.
    • 2017 January 17, “Kennington Where It Started”, Biz of Harlem Spartans (lyrics)‎, 0:28:
      Chew beef like breakfast (Yum)
      Two shanks, get 'round in seconds (Two)
      Be feeding my area, peppers
    • 2023 June 18, “100mph Freestyle x3”, Clavish (lyrics)‎, 3:24:
      Number plates already hot, and plus we've got like three peppers

Synonyms

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Tok Pisin: pepa
  • → Hawaiian: pepa
  • → Marshallese: pepa

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

pepper (third-person singular simple present peppers, present participle peppering, simple past and past participle peppered)

  1. (transitive) To add pepper to.
  2. (transitive) To strike with something made up of small particles.
  3. (transitive) To cover with lots of (something made up of small things).
    After the hailstorm, the beach was peppered with holes.
  4. (transitive) To add (something) at frequent intervals.
    He liked to pepper long words throughout his conversation.
  5. (transitive, slang) To beat or thrash.
  6. (transitive, MLE, slang) To shoot (upon) with the dotty.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Middle English

Noun

pepper

  1. Alternative form of peper

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Etymology

From Old Norse piparr.

Pronunciation

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

Noun

pepper m (definite singular pepperen)

  1. pepper (spice)

Derived terms

See also

References

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia