pepper
UK /ˈpɛp.ə/ · US /ˈpɛp.ɚ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms peppers peppering peppered piper
- noun A plant of the family Piperaceae.
- noun (uncountable) A spice prepared from the fermented, dried, unripe berries of this plant.
- noun (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.
- noun (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".”
- noun (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.
- noun (boxing, slang) A beating; a thrashing.
- noun (MLE, slang) A shotgun.
- verb (transitive) To add pepper to.
- verb (transitive) To strike with something made up of small particles.
- verb (transitive) To cover with lots of (something made up of small things). “After the hailstorm, the beach was peppered with holes.”
- verb (transitive) To add (something) at frequent intervals. “He liked to pepper long words throughout his conversation.”
- verb (transitive, slang) To beat or thrash.
- verb (cryptography) To use a pepper (type of value used prior to hashing).
- verb (transitive, MLE, slang) To shoot (upon) with the dotty.
- verb (transitive, slang) To write accents or disambiguating marks in script.
- proper noun A surname originating as an occupation for a seller of pepper.
Synonyms
capsicum common pepper black pepper white pepper Madagascar pepper Piper nigrum capsicum pepper plant peppercorn pelt
Etymology
From Middle English peper, piper, from Old English piper, from Proto-West Germanic *pipar, from Latin piper, from Ancient Greek πέπερι (péperi), from an Indo-Aryan source; compare Sanskrit पिप्पलि (pippali, “long pepper”), ultimately from Dravidian; compare Tamil திப்பலி (tippali). 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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A well-known, pungently aromatic condiment, the dried berry, either whole or powdered, of the Piper nigrum.
- noun The plant which yields pepper, an East Indian woody climber (Piper nigrum), with ovate leaves and apetalous flowers in spikes opposite the leaves. The berries are red when ripe. Also, by extension, any one of the several hundred species of the genus Piper, widely dispersed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the earth.
- verb To sprinkle or season with pepper.
- verb Figuratively: To shower shot or other missiles, or blows, upon; to pelt; to fill with shot, or cover with bruises or wounds. "I have peppered two of them." "I am peppered, I warrant, for this world." Shak.
Etymology [OE. peper, AS. pipor, L. piper, fr. Gr. pippala, pippali.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pepper”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details