paprika (n.)
condiment made from types of dried, ground sweet red peppers, 1839, from Hungarian paprika, a diminutive from Serbo-Croatian papar "pepper," from Latin piper or Modern Greek piperi (see pepper (n.)). A condiment made from a New World plant, introduced into Eastern Europe by the Turks; known in Hungary by 1569.
Entries linking to paprika
"dried berries of the pepper plant," Middle English peper, from Old English pipor, from an early West Germanic borrowing of Latin piper "pepper," from Greek piperi, probably (via Persian) from Middle Indic pippari, from Sanskrit pippali "long pepper." The Latin word is the source of German Pfeffer, Italian pepe, French poivre, Old Church Slavonic pipru, Lithuanian pipiras, Old Irish piobhar, Welsh pybyr, etc.
Application to fruits of the Capsicum family (unrelated, originally native of tropical America) is from 16c. To have pepper in the nose in Middle English was "to be supercilious or unapproachable."
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updated on October 09, 2020
