Etymology

peppercorn

pep·per·corn
P3E1P3P3E1R1C3O1R1N1

Today it means: The seeds of the pepper plant Piper nigrum, commonly used as a spice, usually ground or crushed. Full definition →

Middle English peper corn ← Old English piporcorn
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited frompiporcorn“peppercorn”
  2. Middle English · inherited frompeper corn
  3. English todaypeppercorn

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”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.