ghost pepper

The story

1. as · calque ofভোট-জলকীয়া“Bhutanese chili”
2. English todayghost pepper

Calque of Assamese ভোট-জলকীয়া (bhüt-zolokia, “Bhutanese chili”). The first element ভোট (bhüt, “Bhutanese”) was mistakenly confused for the near-homonym ভূত (bhut, “ghost”), thus producing the English (mis-)translation "ghost pepper".

Words from the same roots