CAPSICUM • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Capsicum

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noun

Capsicum n. (Bot.)

A genus of plants of many species, producing capsules or dry berries of various forms, which have an exceedingly pungent, biting taste, and when ground form the red or Cayenne pepper of commerce. Note: The most important species are Capsicum baccatum or bird pepper, Capsicum fastigiatum or chili pepper, Capsicum frutescens or spur pepper (from which tabasco is obtained), Capsicum chinense, which includes the fiery-hot habanero pepper, and Capsicum annuum or Guinea pepper, which includes the bell pepper, the jalapeno pepper, the cayenne pepper, and other common garden varieties. The fruit is much used, both in its green and ripe state, in pickles and in cookery. These contain varying levels of the substance capsaicin (C18H27O3N), which gives the peppers their hot taste. The habanero is about 25-50 times hotter than the jalapeno according to a scale developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912. See also Cayenne pepper, pepper.

Any plant of the genus Capsicum (of the Solanaceae family, which are unrelated to Piper), and its fruit; red pepper; chili pepper; as, the bell pepper and the jalapeno pepper (both Capsicum annuum) and the habanero pepper (Capsicum chinense); .

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Etymology of 'Capsicum'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Capsicum" Quotes from Famous Books

... zinziber, ginger. Caryophyllus aromaticus, cloves. Piper indicum, pepper. Capsicum. Cardamomum. Pimento, myrtus pimenta. Canella alba. Serpentaria virginiana, aristolochia serpentaria, guaiacum. Sassafras, laurus ...

— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... purple-and black-fruited kinds being especially serviceable for the table. The common white, which is best known, is fairly good when cooked young, though less rich in flavour than the purple. The cultivation recommended for Capsicum will suit the Egg Plant, but little atmospheric moisture is needed or the seedlings may damp off. They are not well adapted for planting out, although in a warm season they will fruit freely under a sunny wall, and will grow in a gravel walk if helped at first with a little good soil round the ...

— The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots, 16th Edition • Sutton and Sons

... salt, when they have any, which is not often, and with a capsicum that sets your mouth on fire. The use of this capsicum, and the continual chewing of tobacco, and betel has ruined the palate of the Sakais, and left them ...

— My Friends the Savages - Notes and Observations of a Perak settler (Malay Peninsula) • Giovanni Battista Cerruti

... Capsicum there are many species, both annual and perennial; some of the latter being of a shrubby or woody character, and from four to six feet in height. As they are mostly tropical, and consequently tender, none but the annual species ...

— The Field and Garden Vegetables of America • Fearing Burr

... cheerful we have seen yet; but we passed a great stone building on the road, which the proprietor of San Bartolo is having constructed for one of his family, which, if it keep its promise, will be a palace when finished. The principal produce of this hacienda is pimiento, the capsicum. There is the pimiento dulce and the pimiento picante, the sweet fruit of the common capsicum, and the fruit of the bird pepper capsicum. The Spaniards gave to all these peppers the name of chile, which ...

— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon De La Barca