pepper

• piper (archaic)

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛpə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛpɚ/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛpə(ɹ)

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

• (fruit of the capsicum):
  • (spicy): chili, chili pepper, chilli, hot pepper
  • (mild) bell pepper, paprika, sweet pepper, capsicum

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

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.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     I am pepperd for this world, I am sped yfaith, he hath made wormes meate of me

6. (transitive, MLE, slang) To shoot (upon) with the dotty.

• salt
• Wikipedia article on pepper
• Wikipedia article on peppers (fruits of the capsicum plant)

pepper

1. Alternative form of peper

From Old Norse piparr.

pepper m (definite singular pepperen)

1. pepper (spice)

• pepperkake
• peppermynte

• pepar (Nynorsk)

• “pepper” in The Bokmål Dictionary.