[From Tabasco, name of a river and state of Mexico.] More fully Tabasco (pepper) sauce: A very pungent sauce made from the pulp of the ripe fruit of a variety of Capsicum annuum. Also fig., a story ‘highly-spiced.’ Tabasco allspice, name for Pimenta officinalis, var. Cumarensis (formerly Myrtus Tabasco), Sp. Pimienta de Tabasco.
1898. Missouri Bot. Garden, 9th Rept., 59.
1900. Westm. Gaz., Dec., 8/2. He … was … seized and forced to swallow a large dose of Tabasco sauce mixed with ketchup and cayenne pepper. Ibid. (1902), 26 April, 2/1. Mix with due assiduity, and finally add from three to six drops of tabasco.
1903. Agric. News (Barbados), XI. 227. There seems to be no reason for supposing that the Tabasco allspice enters into the preparation of Tabasco pepper.
1908. Times, 30 July, 3/3. He had written ‘Sultry Stories—Peppery Paragraphs—Tabasco Tales.’ Tabasco was a hot sauce.
