Pepper has a long history in English. Middle English peper follows Old English pipor, which came from Latin piper and Greek peperi.
Sources
- Merriam-Webster: pepper
Noun (1) Word History gives all four earlier spellings; Noun (2) records a separate baseball-word history.
- Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary · search
Meanings of the older forms on the word path.
- logeion.uchicago.edu · πέπερι
Meanings of the older forms on the word path.
- logeion.uchicago.edu · piper
Meanings of the older forms on the word path.
- Online Etymology Dictionary · pepper
Meanings of the older forms on the word path.