DisputedOrigin is disputed
bhut jolokia
noun · first attested 20th century
The ghost in ghost pepper may really be Bhutan.
An extremely hot chili grown in northeast India, sold in English as the ghost pepper.
Record
- Relationship
- Origin is disputed
- Confidence
- DisputedCompeting explanations remain live.
- Attested
- 20th century
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Bhutan
- In English
bhut jolokia
In Assamese, jolokia is chili and bhut is usually read as ghost, which is where the English name comes from; another reading takes bhut as a reference to the Bhutia, the people of Bhutan, marking the chili as something that arrived from over the border. Neither account is settled, and the pepper is grown across Assam, Nagaland and Manipur rather than in any one place.