πέπερι

Forms

πέπερῐ (péperi) n (genitive πεπέρεως or πεπέρῐος, diminutive πεπέρῐον); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is an Eastern loanword,^[2][3] borrowed from Prakrit pipparī, ultimately of unknown origin.^[2][4] Compare Sanskrit पिप्पलि (pippalī, “long pepper”).^[2][1] The forms πέπερις (péperis) and πεπέριδος (pepéridos) and the later spelling with ⟨πι-⟩ show that the word was not fully adapted.^[3][5]

According to Chantraine and the Πάπυρος, Latin piper was borrowed in parallel,^[3][4] while Saalfeld derives it from the Greek.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first texts are the Hippocratic treatises, which prescribe pepper as a drug.^[7][8] Beekes gives the comic poets Eubulus and Antiphanes and Aristotle as early witnesses.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The spice was costly and came from India.^[8] Theophrastus knew a long pepper, whose grains grow in pods, and Dioscorides praised pepper for eye ailments, coughs and digestion.^[8][5] Greek made compounds such as μακροπέπερι (makropéperi, “long pepper”), and with a suffix taken from Latin it formed πεπερᾶτος (peperâtos, “peppered”).^[3]

Hellenistic Greek had the form πίπερι (píperi), and its medieval diminutive Byzantine Greek πιπέρι (pipéri) is the Modern Greek word for pepper, πιπέρι (pipéri).^[9][10][11]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writers prescribe it.^[7][8]
• 4th century BC – Eubulus, Antiphanes and Aristotle mention it.^[2][5][12]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus describes long pepper.^[5][8][12]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides lists its medical uses.^[5][8][12]
• Modern Greek – The word survives as πιπέρι (pipéri).^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Pepper, the spice and drug Piper nigrum.^[5][13]
2. (with an adjective meaning “long”) Long pepper.^[5]
3. (plural, feminine) Pepper plants.^[5][3]

Word family

• ὀξυπέπερι (oxupéperi)
• πεπερᾶτος (peperâtos)
• πεπερίζω (peperízō)
• πέπερις (péperis)
• ὑδροπέπερι (hudropéperi)

Related words

• Latin piper

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d e f Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
11. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
13. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press