Capsa

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The dried fruit of certain plants, often used for culinary purposes or spice
2. A type of pod that contains seeds, typically seen in relation to peppers and similar plants
3. A botanical structure that releases seeds or contains spice, commonly associated with various cuisines

Etymology: Latin "capsa" meant a box, case, or chest, a container for holding things, and it was built on "capere," meaning "to take or hold." The sense of a hollow container is what carried over into botany, where the dried fruit of a plant became the thing being named. The best-known descendant is "capsicum," the name for the genus of peppers, formed from "capsa." It refers to the hollow, box-like fruit, which holds its seeds inside a chamber. So a dried spice pod is named for the same container sense the Romans used for a chest or case.

Synonyms: box, container, case, chest, crate