Pepper

Pepper is an English word name taken from the spice. Black pepper comes from the dried fruit of Piper nigrum, a climbing plant, while the peppers sold as vegetables belong to a different botanical group. The word traveled into English through older languages as the spice moved through long-distance trade.

The name has a lively cultural presence through Pepper Potts in Marvel stories and the animated character Pepper Ann. Some listeners may also think of the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. These are associations with the word rather than alternative etymologies. Pepper offers an unusually direct culinary nature connection, with a familiar spelling and a meaning that can be explained without tracing a longer formal name.