9 Bibliography 10 Further reading 11 External links Etymology[edit]

4.1 Ancient times
4.2 Postclassical Europe
4.3 China
4.4 As medicine
5 Flavor
6 World trade
7 See also
8 Notes and references
9 Bibliography
10 Further reading
11 External links
Etymology[edit]

The word "pepper" has its roots in the Dravidian word for long pepper, pippali.[2][3][4] Ancient Greek and Latin turned pippali into the Latin piper, which was used by the Romans to refer both to black pepper and long pepper, as the Romans erroneously believed that both of these spices were derived from the same plant.[5] Today's "pepper" derives from the Old English pipor. The Latin word is also the source of Romanian piper, Italian pepe, Dutch peper, German Pfeffer, French poivre, and other similar forms.
In the 16th century, pepper started referring to the unrelated New World chili pepper as well. "Pepper" was used in a figurative sense to mean "spirit" or "energy" at least as far back as the 1840s; in the early 20th century, this was shortened to pep.[6]
In Hindi, it is called "kaali mirch" (black chilli/pepper), "kuru mulagu" (seed chilli/pepper) and "nalla mulagu" (good chilli/pepper)in Malayalam and in Tulu, it is called "edde munchi" (good chilli/pepper).[citation needed]
Varieties[edit]



Black and white peppercorns
Black pepper[edit]
Black pepper is produced from the still-green unripe drupes of the pepper plant. The drupes are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The drupes are dried in the s