Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PEP'PER, n. [L. piper; Sax. peppor; D. peper; Sw. peppar; G. pfeffer; Dan. peber; Fr. poivre; It. pepe; Gr. πεπερι; Hindoo, pipel; Sanscrit, pipali; Pers. pilpil.]

A plant and its fruit, of the genus Piper, of which there are very numerous species. The stem of the black pepper plant is a vine requiring a prop, which is usually a tree. The leaves are oval and the flower white. We have four kinds of pepper, the black, the white, the long, and cubebs. The black pepper is the produce of Java, Sumatra, Ceylon, and other Asiatic countries; the white pepper is the black pepper decorticated; the long pepper is the fruit of a different species, also from the East Indies. It consists of numerous grains attached to a common footstalk. Cubebs are brought from Java, Nepal, Sierra Leone, and the Isle of France. Pepper has a strong aromatic smell and a pungent taste. – Asiat. Res. Encyc.