A peppercorn is the small dried fruit of the pepper plant, the hard little ball you crush or grind to make the hot, dusty spice we call pepper. Black peppercorns are the whole dried berries; white ones are the same fruit with the dark skin taken off; green ones are picked younger. Cooks who care will grind them fresh, because the smell lives in the cracked seed and fades in the ready-made powder. Though actually English also stretches the word: a peppercorn rent is a rent so tiny it is almost a joke — historically you might pay one peppercorn a year, just to keep the agreement real. Nobody is handing over spice at the landlord’s office; it means ‘almost nothing, but still a payment.’ In ordinary cooking talk, though, a peppercorn is simply that little seed.

胡椒粒（不是玉米；「peppercorn rent」則是象徵性的極少租金）