Peppermint
nounAn aromatic mint plant, or the sharp cool flavour taken from it.
How to spell peppermint
10 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce peppermint
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does peppermint mean?
- nounAn aromatic mint plant, or the sharp cool flavour taken from it.
Peppermint in a sentence
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She grew a pot of peppermint on the kitchen windowsill.
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The peppermint in the tea gave it a cool, sharp aftertaste.
Where does peppermint come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Peppermint is a compound of two older English words, 'pepper' and 'mint', and it names a specific hybrid mint with a notably sharp, biting flavour. 'Pepper' descends from the Latin 'piper', itself borrowed from a Sanskrit source 'pippali', the spice having travelled west along ancient trade routes. 'Mint' comes from the Latin 'mentha', drawn in turn from Greek 'minthe', the name of a nymph who, in myth, was transformed into the fragrant plant. The two words were joined in English by around the late 1600s to capture the plant's peppery bite, which set it apart from milder mints like spearmint. Because both halves are familiar everyday words, the spelling is regular and the only thing to watch is the double 'p' in 'pepper'.
How the word is built
- pepper (the pungent spice plant)
- mint (the aromatic herb)
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