paprika
Pluralpaprikas (some meanings)
Pluralpaprikas (some meanings)
- 1A powdered spice made by drying and grinding sweet or chili peppers, used especially in Hungarian cooking.
The goulash recipe calls for a generous tablespoon of paprika.
He toasted the paprika briefly in hot oil to release its aroma.
Note
The name came to English by a long road. It was borrowed from Hungarian, which took it from Serbo-Croatian pàprika, from pȁpar, and behind that lie Latin piper and Greek péperi, "pepper," and finally an Indo-Aryan word related to Sanskrit pippali, "long pepper." The Hungarian dish paprikash shares the root. The spice's Hungarian character lies in the cooking rather than the supply: Jean Andrews in 1995 credits California with taking the lead in growing it.
- 2A particular variety of the ground pepper spice, such as a sweet one or a hot one.
A smoked paprika lends a savory edge that the plain ground spice lacks.
The shop stocked half a dozen paprikas at different price points.
Note
Once the spice can be counted, it names a kind. Heidi Swan writes of a single paprika and a trio of paprikas, meaning varieties rather than amounts. To talk about quantity, English goes back to the mass noun, as in two teaspoons of paprika. The plural paprikas therefore usually means several types side by side, unless it names dried whole pods.
- 3The vivid reddish-orange shade of the ground spice of the same name.
The designer chose a rich paprika for the accent cushions.
At sunset the cliffs glowed a warm paprika against the sky.
- 4Bright reddish-orange in color, resembling that of the dried spice.
The room felt warmer once the walls were a deep paprika tone.
A paprika sunset spread across the desert horizon.
Note
The color word compares the way long adjectives do: more paprika, most paprika, never with an added -er. It sits most naturally before a noun, as in a paprika sunset or paprika walls. In a phrase like a deep paprika tone, it is hard to tell apart from the color noun used attributively, and either reading works.
Less common meaning
- 5A dried but not yet ground fruit of a sweet or chili pepper, sold for use as a spice.
strings of red paprikas hang outside to dry in the autumn
2003, Jonathan Bousfield, Rough Guide to CroatiaNote
Few English speakers use the word for the whole dried pod. Most say dried peppers, dried bell or chili peppers, or dried capsicums, and keep paprika for the ground spice. Where this sense does appear, it is countable and tends to describe Central European scenes. Jonathan Bousfield's Rough Guide to Croatia (2003) pictures strings of red paprikas hung outside to dry, fittingly close to where the word's Serbo-Croatian ancestor was spoken.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of paprika apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Borrowed from Hungarian paprika, from Serbo-Croatian pàprika (from pȁpar) and Proto-Slavic *pьpьrь, ultimately from Latin piper and Ancient Greek πέπερι (péperi, "pepper"), of Indo-Aryan origin; compare Sanskrit पिप्पलि (pippali, "long pepper").