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long pepper

long pepper

6.8
A long hot spice that comes from a climbing plant, like black pepper
  • noun
  • /lɔŋ ˈpɛpər/
translation icon : pimienta larga
  • For a unique taste, try using long pepper in your next recipe instead of regular pepper.

Examples

  • You can find long pepper in specialty spice shops around the city.

  • Take 1-2 gm each of black pepper, long pepper, and dry ginger.

    Blog text (16)
  • The chef used long pepper to enhance the flavor of the curry.

Synonyms

Piper longum
vslong pepper
  • Specialized
9.6

A thin climbing tropical plant from the eastern Himalayas grown for its long pepper fruit used as a spice

has identical meaning but is the common name rather than the botanical label

How Spicy

bird pepper
  • US
8.9
long pepper
6.8
black pepper
1 1.0
bell pepper
  • US
21 1.6

Surface Forms

long pepper singular
long peppers plural

Morphology

long + pepper

The meaning is directly compositional: 'long' (extended in length) + 'pepper' (the spice/plant) yields a pepper that is long. This straightforward descriptive compound is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a long type of pepper even if they lack botanical detail.

Etymology

Long pepper is named for its shape: the fruit is a long, thin, bumpy spike instead of a round peppercorn. Traders brought this 'hot' 'spice' from India long ago, and because it looked like a longer kind of black pepper, the name long pepper now means that particular long, hot spice.