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Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. When dried, the fruit is known as a peppercorn. When fresh and fully mature, it is approximately in diameter, dark red, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed. Peppercorns, and the ground pepper derived from them, may be described simply as pepper, or more precisely as black pepper (cooked and dried unripe fruit), green pepper (dried unripe fruit) and white pepper (ripe fruit seeds). Black pepper is native to south India, and is extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions. Currently, Vietnam is the world's largest producer and exporter of pepper, producing 34% of the world's ''Piper nigrum'' crop as of 2013. Dried ground pepper has been used since antiquity for both its flavour and as a traditional medicine. Black pepper is the world's most traded spice. It is one of the most common spices added to cuisines around the world. The spiciness of black pepper is due to the chemical piperine, not to be confused with the capsaicin characteristic of fresh hot peppers. Black pepper is ubiquitous in the modern world as a seasoning and is often paired with salt. ==Etymology== The word "pepper" has its roots in the Dravidian word for long pepper, ''pippali''.〔(Dravidian India - T.R. Sesha Iyengar - Google Books ). Books.google.com. Retrieved on 31 October 2012.〕〔(Intercourse Between India and the Western World - H. G. Rawlinson - Google Books ). Books.google.com. Retrieved on 31 October 2012.〕〔(Antiquities of India: An Account of the History and Culture of Ancient Hindustan - Lionel D. Barnett - Google Books ). Books.google.com. Retrieved on 31 October 2012.〕 Ancient Greek and Latin turned ''pippali'' into the Latin ''piper'', which was used by the Romans to refer both to black pepper and long pepper, as the Romans erroneously believed that both of these spices were derived from the same plant.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Pepper )〕 Today's "pepper" derives from the Old English ''pipor''. The Latin word is also the source of Romanian ''piper'', Italian ''pepe'', Dutch ''peper'', German ''Pfeffer'', French ''poivre'', and other similar forms. In the 16th century, ''pepper'' started referring to the unrelated New World chili pepper as well. "Pepper" was used in a figurative sense to mean "spirit" or "energy" at least as far back as the 1840s; in the early 20th century, this was shortened to ''pep''.〔Douglas Harper's ''Online Etymology Dictionary'' entries for (''pepper'' ) and (''pep'' ). Retrieved 13 November 2005.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Black pepper」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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