pepper

Meanings

Noun

• A plant of the family Piperaceae.
• A spice prepared from the fermented, dried, unripe berries of this plant.
• 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.
• 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
• 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.

Verb

• To add pepper to.
• To strike with something made up of small particles.
• To cover with lots of (something made up of small things).
• To add (something) at frequent intervals.
• To beat or thrash.

Origin

• From Middle English peper, piper, from Old English piper, from Proto-West Germanic *piper, from Latin piper, from an Indic source; compare Sanskrit पिप्पलि ("long pepper"). The name was given to the capsicum fruit because of its unusual spicy taste, not unlike the European 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. peepul.