page_title: Caper
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Caper / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Frucht und Samen von Capparis spinosa English: fruit and seed of Capparis spinosa Italiano: frutto e semi di Capparis spinosa
context_page_description: Capparis spinosa, the caper bush, also called Flinders rose, is a perennial plant that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers.
  The plant is best known for the edible flower buds, used as a seasoning, and the fruit, both of which are usually consumed pickled. Other species of Capparis are also picked along with C. spinosa for their buds or fruits. Other parts of Capparis plants are used in the manufacture of medicines and cosmetics.
  Capparis spinosa is native to almost all the circum-Mediterranean countries, and is included in the flora of most of them, but whether it is indigenous to this region is uncertain. The family Capparaceae could have originated in the tropics, and later spread to the Mediterranean basin.
  The taxonomic status of the species is controversial and unsettled. Species within the genus Capparis are highly variable, and interspecific hybrids have been common throughout the evolutionary history of the genus.
context_section_description: The caper was used in ancient Greece as a carminative. It is represented in archaeological levels in the form of carbonised seeds and rarely as flower buds and fruits from archaic and Classical antiquity contexts. Athenaeus in Deipnosophistae pays a lot of attention to the caper, as do Pliny (NH XIX, XLVIII.163) and Theophrastus.
  Etymologically, the caper and its relatives in several European languages can be traced back to Classical Latin capparis, “caper”, in turn borrowed from the Greek κάππαρις, kápparis, whose origin (as that of the plant) is unknown but is probably Asian. Another theory links kápparis to the name of the island of Cyprus (Κύπρος, Kýpros), where capers grow abundantly.
  In Biblical times, the caper berry was apparently supposed to have aphrodisiac properties; the Hebrew word aviyyonah (אֲבִיּוֹנָה) for caperberry is closely linked to the Hebrew root אבה (avah), meaning "desire". The word occurs once in the Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes, at verse 12:5.
  
  The King James Version translates on the basis of the Hebrew root (and perhaps the metaphorical meaning):
  ...the grasshopper shall be a burden,
   and desire shall fail.  (12:5 KJV)
  
  The medieval Jewish commentator Rashi also gives a similar gloss (12:5 JPR).  However, ancient translations, including the Septuagint, Vulgate, Peshitta and Aquila, render the word more concretely as κάππαρις, "caper berry". Thus in the words of one modern idiomatic translation (2004),
  ...the grasshopper loses its spring, 
   and the caper berry has no effect;  (12:5 HCSB)
  Of other modern versions, the New International Version (NIV) goes for "desire" (12:5 NIV), while the New American Standard Bible (NASB) has "caper-berry" (12:5 NASB), as did the 1917 Jewish Publication Society version (12:5 JPS).
  The berries (abiyyonot) were eaten, as appears from their liability to tithes and to the restrictions of the 'Orlah.  They are carefully distinguished in the Mishnah and the Talmud from the caper leaves, alin, shoots, temarot, and the caper buds, capperisin (note the similarity "caper"isin to "caper"); all of which were eaten as seen from the blessing requirement, and declared to be the fruit of the ẓelaf or caper plant.
  Talmud Bavli discusses the eating of caper sepals versus caper berries, both inside the land of Israel, outside the land of Israel, and in Syria.
  Capers are mentioned as a spice in the Roman cookbook, Apicius.  Because the youngest, smallest buds fetch the highest prices, daily picking is typical.
caption: A ripe caper fruit (caper berry)
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