pepper - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Peppercorns (2).

Peppers (capsicum).

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, Norwegian Bokmål pepper, Norwegian Nynorsk pepar, Swedish peppar, Icelandic pipar. Doublet of falafel and peepul.

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 fruit of the capsicum plant: red, green, yellow or white, hollow and containing seeds, and in a wide range of mild (sweet, nonspicy) to hot (spicy) varieties.
    Synonym: capsicum
    Hyponyms: (mild/nonspicy) bell pepper, capsicum, sweet pepper; (hot/spicy) chili, chili pepper, hot pepper
  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)‎[1], 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)‎[2], 3:24:
      Number plates already hot, and plus we've got like three peppers

plant

spice

fruit of the capsicum

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. (cryptography) To use a pepper (type of value used prior to hashing).
  7. (transitive, MLE, slang) To shoot (upon) with the dotty.
  8. (transitive, slang) To write accents or disambiguating marks in script.

add pepper to

strike with small particles

cover with lots of small things

pepper

  1. alternative form of peper

From Old Norse piparr.

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

pepper m (definite singular pepperen)

  1. pepper (spice)