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Comment by Symbiote | Hacker News Reader

English has hot, spicy and piquant.

The problem is all of those can be ambiguous. "Hot" can mean high temperature, "spicy" can mean e.g. lots of garlic or cumin, or any other spices, and "piquant" can mean tart like citrus.

Perhaps the lack of a dedicated mapping to "capsaicin sensation" stems historically from England's reputedly bland cuisine...

>England's reputedly bland cuisine...

Thank goodness for immigration.

Okay, in light of recent UK events I get the subtext :-)

But I don't think it's fair to call UK food bland. Done properly it's very good, but what it's not (usually) is heavily seasoned. In no way does that require it to be tasteless, and done properly it isn't.

My understanding is that UK food was on a par with other European countries in medieval times. By the 1950s to 1970s, it was pretty bad though. No doubt some of this was down to wartime rationing. Perhaps some of it was due to protestant fear of anything too enjoyable.

There is a reason there are thousands of Indian restuarants in England and approximately zero English restaurants in India. ;0)

Thankfully, food has improved vastly in the UK since the 70s.

The Turkish word is also ambiguous. Chili peppers were only brought from South America in the 16th century.

England's bland food is a relatively recent development, much more recent than the language.

https://edmundstanding.wordpress.com/2020/05/28/hot-peppers-...

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