English Explanatory Dictionary

pepper

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A plant of the family Piperaceae.
  2. A spice prepared from the fermented, dried, unripe berries of this plant.
  3. 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.
  4. 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
  5. 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. A beating; a thrashing.
  7. A shotgun.
verb
  1. To add pepper to.
  2. To strike with something made up of small particles.
  3. To cover with lots of (something made up of small things).
  4. To add (something) at frequent intervals.
  5. To beat or thrash.
  6. To use a pepper (type of value used prior to hashing).
  7. To shoot (upon) with the dotty.
  8. To write accents or disambiguating marks in script.
name
  1. A surname originating as an occupation for a seller of pepper.

Pronunciation

/ˈpɛp.ə/ [ˈpʰɛp.ə] En-uk-pepper.ogg /ˈpɛp.ɚ/ [ˈpʰɛp.ɚ] [ˈpʰɛp.ɹ̩]

Word forms

pepper peppers piper peppering peppered

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

Synonyms

capsicum

Related words

salt

Derived words

alligator pepper Ashanti pepper banana pepper bell pepper bepepper betel pepper bird pepper black pepper black pepper snake Brazilian pepper tree California pepper tree cayenne pepper cherry pepper chile pepper chili pepper chilli pepper cone pepper conical pepper conic pepper Culpepper Espelette pepper ghost chili pepper ghost pepper green pepper Guinea pepper hot pepper Jamaica pepper Java pepper lemon pepper malagueta pepper mignonette pepper monk's pepper old man's pepper overpepper peppadew pepperade pepper and salt pepper-and-salt pepper ball pepperberry pepperbox pepperbush pepper cake peppercorn pepper disease pepper dulse pepperer pepperette pepper gas pepper-gas pepper gel pepper-gingerbread peppergrass peppering pepperish pepperita pepper Jack pepper jelly pepperless pepperlike
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