peppercorn

See also: Peppercorn

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English peper corn, peper-corn, pepercorn, from Old English piporcorn (“peppercorn”), corresponding to pepper +‎ corn. Compare Dutch peperkorrel (“peppercorn”), German Pfefferkorn (“peppercorn”), Danish peberkorn (“peppercorn”), Swedish pepparkorn (“peppercorn”), Icelandic piparkorn (“peppercorn”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛpəkɔːn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛpɚkɔɹn/
• Hyphenation: pep‧per‧corn

Noun

peppercorn (plural peppercorns)

1. The seeds of the pepper plant Piper nigrum, commonly used as a spice, usually ground or crushed.
2. A small, insignificant quantity; a whit or jot.
   • 1961, Book Production Magazine, volumes 73-74, page 47:

     A 75 ¢ book must look 40 ¢ better to the distributor and wholesaler, because if one peppercorn of doubt that people will pay 75 ¢ for the book gets thrown into the distribution mill, the books may never leave their cartons […]

   1. (law, attributive) A nominal consideration used to satisfy the requirements for the creation of a legal contract.

      peppercorn rent

Usage notes

The use of a peppercorn as consideration in legal contracts is commonly literal (even in the modern day)—frequently as a peppercorn rent—but it is invariably accompanied by a proviso that it need only be physically provided if actually demanded.

Derived terms

• peppercorn hair
• peppercorn rent
• pink peppercorn

Translations

the seeds of the plant Piper nigrum

Assamese: গোল মৰিচ (gül moris) Bikol Central: paminta (bcl) Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: 胡椒子 (zh) (hújiāozǐ), 胡椒粒 (zh) (hújiāolì) Dutch: peperkorrel (nl) m Esperanto: pipro Finnish: pippuri (fi), pippurinmarja French: grain de poivre (fr) Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: Pfefferkorn (de) n Greek: πιπερόκοκκος m (piperókokkos) Hindi: गोलमिर्च (hi) (golmirc) Hungarian: borsszem (hu) Italian: grano di pepe Latin: grānum piperis n Lü: ᦘᦲᧅᦓᦾᧉ (phiiknoay²) Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Polish: ziarnko pieprzu n Romanian: boabă de piper f Russian: перец (ru) (perets) Swedish: pepparkorn c Tagalog: paminta Turkish: please add this translation if you can Welsh: grawn pupur

a small, insignificant quantity

Finnish: hitunen (fi) Polish: ździebko (pl) n

Gallery

• 
  young peppercorn
• 
  Fruits of peppercorn
• 
  Dried peppercorn
• 
  varieties of peppercorn