malagueta

Meaning

Noun

• Synonym of grains of paradise, the seeds or seed capsules of the West African Aframomum melegueta (species); the plant itself.
• The seeds or seed capsules of a Caribbean variety of Capsicum frutescens; the plant itself, now extensively grown in Brazil, Portugal, and Mozambique.

Origin

• From Portuguese malagueta, probably via Middle French malaguette, from Italian meleghetta, from Italian melega ("millet") and -etta, from Latin milium ("millet").
• There are various paths by which the name could have become applied to the African pepper. Medieval Latin melegeta was an Indonesian spice called after millet on the basis of the supposed resemblance of their grains. By the mid-15th century, the West African Grain Coast was known in Portuguese as costa da malagueta, whence the place name was borrowed into other languages and applied to its local products. Early English use reports that it was the local name of the spice, long preserved around Cape Palmas, which may indicate a Mande or Kwa origin, although such use is usually attributed to loanwords from Portuguese.
• The unrelated Brazilian pepper acquired the name from its similar piquancy.