n. pl. pep·per·o·nis 1. A highly spiced pork and beef sausage. 2. A slice of this type of sausage. [Originally an American Italian word (the pepperoni sausage style being unknown in Italy), perhaps from alteration (influenced by English pepper) of Italian peperoni, plural of peperone, red bell pepper, pimento, from augmentative of pepere, variant of pepe, black pepper, from Old Italian, from Latin piper, black pepper, long pepper; see PEPPER.] |
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