1. Fully ripened sweet red pepper; usually cooked.
2. A plant bearing large mild thick-walled usually bell-shaped fruits; the principal salad peppers.
3. Etymology: from Spanish pimiento, "green" or "red pepper"; also pimientam, "black pepper"; from Late Latin pigmenta, plural of pigmentum, "vegetable juice"; from Latin pigmentum, "pigment"; from the stem of pingere, "to paint".

So called because it added a dash of color to food or drinks.