Globally the most common spice or flavor-enhancing element used today is the chili pepper. Chilies are used raw, cooked or pickled as a vegetable or dried (ground into a powder or reconstituted) as a seasoning in almost every corner of the world. There are thousands of varieties of chili peppers employed in nearly every ethnic cuisine. One can't imagine Indian, Thai or African food without the heat-packing chili — and Japanese cuisine is not without it either.
The chili pepper, belonging to the same horticultural family as the potato, eggplant and tomato, was domesticated in the Americas 2,000 years ago. It was called pepper in English because the chili's heat reminded early New World explorers of black pepper, the berry spice that they had set out to find. Along with black pepper, chilies are one of the only plants to provide the heat so sought after by cooks to enhance their food. Easily grown and adaptable to local climes, the chili quickly spread to all the inhabited continents 500 years ago.
Chili peppers are often just called peppers to avoid confusion with the dishes that go by the name chili (from the Native American ch'illi). The scientific name capsicum, describing all chilies, is from the Greek kapato, to bite.