Another "how do you say" / "what do you call this" poll

[pne]

[Poll #757711]

Comments

[fweebles.livejournal.com]

I've never heard "Green pepper" in connection with any sort of food that wasn't actually green.

[mendel.livejournal.com]

You can't say that anymore! But yeah, that's why I said I'd do it if I didn't mind being annoying. But if I said "I need a red pepper", and you thought "Does he mean or ?", then I'd say "a red green-pepper" to clarify it, and since you already knew the possibilities, you'd know which I was talking about.

Context resolves ambiguity in language!

[fweebles.livejournal.com]

I'd say "habañero pepper" or "jalapeño pepper" or whatever for the former. ;)

[mendel.livejournal.com]

But it's not a habanero or a jalapeno! I'm not sure what species it is, exactly. (That might be a picture of a jalapeno, actually, but I mean the bigger ones.) It's a "chili pepper", but bell peppers are chili peppers too! It's the sweet pepper that's long and pointy. The yellow ones like it are called "banana peppers".

(And both jalapenos and chili peppers are Capiscuum anuum.!)

Whoa! I just discovered that green peppers are simply immature red (bell) peppers, like green and red tomatoes. Maybe I should call them "green red-peppers" instead.

[mendel.livejournal.com]

Woops, I meant to edit out "I'm not sure what species it is".

[nyxie.livejournal.com]

I call them OMG WTF MY MOUTH IS ON FIRE!

:p

[mendel.livejournal.com]

Red OMG WTF MY MOUTH IS ON FIRE, or green OMG WTF MY MOUTH IS ON FIRE?

[fweebles.livejournal.com]

I've gotten to the point where jalapeños are "kinda flavourful" and if I'm actually looking for hot, I need to do the habañero thing.

I dunno what I'll do once that becomes routine. Pour raw capsaicin on my tongue?

[tungol.livejournal.com]

If I had to distinguish those sorts of red peppers, I'd probably use "hot pepper" vs. "sweet pepper". I probably wouldn't call the hot pepper a "red pepper" in the first place, though.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

The former is a chile pepper. In New Jersey I would have called it a red chile, but around here red chile (and green chile) are specific things and I don't know enough to tell whether that is really a red chile (which can only be a Hatch chile) or just a chile pepper. ;-)

[mendel.livejournal.com]

Alas, sweet peppers are chile (= chili) peppers! (#t1981991)

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

Not in New Mexico, they ain't. ;-)

[mendel.livejournal.com]

Well, "people use different words" was how this whole discussion began. But if you're going to jump in and start declaring what things are hours after I already talked about the problem with "sweet" vs "chili" (#t1981991), then people might be left wondering what you're trying to get across!

Besides, I already explained that I was trying to illustrate a red banana pepper but probably accidentally illustrated a jalapeno (or a tabasco). Even though red banana peppers are chiles I'm not sure people would think of a red banana when they hear "chile" instead of a much smaller, hotter pepper.