Pepper

n. [A-S. pepor, peopor, pipor, Lat. piper, Gr. πέπερι, Skr. pippali, Hind. & Per. pilpil, Pr. & Sp. pebre, It. pepe, pevere, Fr. poivre, L. Ger. & D. peper, Dan. peber, Sw. peppar, Icel. pipar, H. Ger. pfeffer.] (Bot.) A climbing plant and its fruit, of the genus Piper, of which there are very numerous species. The leaves are oval, and the flowers white. Pepper has a strong, aromatic smell, and a hot, pungent taste.

There are four kinds of pepper—the black, the white, the long, and cubebs. The black pepper is the produce of Java, Sumatra, Ceylon, and other Asiatic countries; the white pepper is the black pepper decorticated; the long pepper is the fruit of a different species, also from the East Indies. It consists of numerous grains attached to a common footstalk. Cubebs are brought from Java, Nepal, Sierra Leone, and the Isle of France. The name is also applied to a variety of plants of different genera, characterized by a hot, biting taste, resembling that of the pepper, especially to the Capsicum, which includes the red pepper, cherry pepper, Cayenne pepper, Guinea pepper, goat pepper, and other species.

Black Pepper (Piper nigrum).

To take pepper in the nose, to take offense; to get angry. [Obs.] Halliwell.