English

Various cultivars of Capsicum annuum, the cascabel chili pepper.

Decorated cascabel (knob at the end of a cannon).

Noun

cascabel ‎(plural cascabels)

1. A small, round, hot variety of chili pepper, Capsicum annuum, which rattles when dry.
   • 1995 [1984], Jean Andrews, Peppers: The Domesticated Capsicums, page 100,

     The very pungent Mexican Cascabel looks a lot like the Cherry pepper when it is growing. […] In the dry state the skin becomes translucent and the seeds are loose so that they rattle, hence cascabel, which means sleigh or jingle bells. Another cultivar, the elongate Catarina, is often called Cascabel because its dry seeds also make a noise within its translucent dry skin.

   • 1997, Didi Emmons, Vegetarian Planet: 350 Big-Flavor Recipes for Out-Of-This-World Food Every Day, page 415,

     Cascabels are available dried in Latin American markets. Hot and nutty in flavor, cascabels are good in sauces, beans, and chilis.

   • 2004, Rick Greenspan, Hal Kahn, The Leave-No-Crumbs Camping Cookbook, page 94,

     Prepare the cascabels using one of the methods in the Preparing Cascabels box, at left.

2. A knob at the end of a cannon, cast onto the gun barrel, to which ropes are attached in order to control recoil.
   • 1862, Samuel Kneeland, George Bliss, David Ames Wells, William Ripley Nichols, Charles Robert Cross (editor), John Trowbridge (editor), Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art, page 91,

     The cascabel, instead of being permanently attached to the breech of the piece, is set into it by means of a ****, and thus in reality the bore extends the entire distance of the gun, so that when the cascabel is taken off one can look directly through the gun.

   • 2011, Roy F Sullivan, The Texas Revolution: Tejano Heroes, page 137,

     This iron cannon with a single muzzle band, without trunnions and with an oversized cascabel is believed by many to be the original “Come and Take It” cannon and is displayed at the Gonzales Memorial Museum and occasionally elsewhere within Texas.

   • 2011, Chris Messner, Cuba Open from the Inside: Travels in the Forbidden Land, unnumbered page,

     I was looking at a 151 mm caliber cannon, which used the twentyfour pound cannon ball and displayed a beautiful lion′s head on the back end of its breach area. An elaborate cascabel stuck out of the mouth of each animal. The cascabel was primarily used to attach ropes that secured the cannon during the recoil blowback that came from firing.

3. A bell attached to a sleigh or sleigh harness.

Synonyms

• (pepper): chile bola, bola chile, rattle chile, coban
• (bell attached to a sleigh): jingle bell

Translations

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kas.kaˈβel/
• Rhymes: -el

Un cascabel de cobre. (A copper jingle bell).

Etymology 1

From Occitan cascavel, from Vulgar Latin cascābellus ‎(“small bell”), diminutive of cascabus, from Latin caccabus.

Influenced by quassicāre, based on Latin quassāre, present active infinitive of quassō ‎(“I shake repeatedly, quake”), because when the chili is being prepared, the seeds make a rattling noise when the pepper is dried.

Noun

cascabel m ‎(plural cascabeles)

1. jingle bell, sleigh bell
2. (Chile) rattle (baby's toy)
3. knob of a cannon
4. cascabel (chili)

Synonyms

• (rattle): sonaja f, sonajero m

Related terms

• cascar

Descendants

• English: cascabel

Etymology 2

Short for serpiente de cascabel ‎(“rattlesnake”).

Noun

cascabel f ‎(plural cascabeles)

1. rattlesnake

Synonyms

• (rattlesnake): crótalo, serpiente de cascabel