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Abstract
The phenomenon of the renaming of the common green pepper to “mango” in the Ohio Valley region is examined. Surveys were returned from 2,377 undergraduate students in 41 colleges and universities in the United States. The response revealed a concentration of knowledge of the term mango in the southern midland region in the States of Indiana and Ohio, southeastern Illinois, and an isolated spot in eastern Pennsylvania. This is a more contracted area than found from DARE (Dictionary of American Regional English) informants in the late 1960s. The name mango as applied to green peppers probably comes from a complex progression of food preparations. Comparisons with 1850 census data, county histories, contemporary atlases, and fieldwork, indicate a connection with German ethnicity. Though a lexical connection with tropical colonial/ slavery/sugar institutions was sought, such was not verified in this study.