Comments on: Mango

By: Amanda

Amanda — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:43:04 +0000

I live in east central Illinois, where my grandmother was also raised. She is the first to have used the term “mango” in my presence, when referring to a green pepper. So, the supposition that this usage of the word is foreign to central Illinois is incorrect.

By: Kelli

Kelli — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 16:16:35 +0000

I grew up in southern Indiana and my Mother all her peers and older generation called green peppers mangos. Didn’t know what a real mango was until i went away to college. I never knew how they came up with it. The 1st commentary explains alot. Don’t hear younger generation using that term. It is disappearing from the language.

By: Stickler

Stickler — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 18:59:30 +0000

I’ve lived for many years in the Vanderburgh/Warrick County area of Southern Indiana. I’ve heard several people here refer to green peppers as mangoes. I always thought it was a Southern Indiana thing, much like ‘I seen it;’ ‘I done it;’ and ‘It don’t matter.’ Thanks, Word Detective, for the history lesson.

By: Becky

Becky — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 12:30:15 +0000

I am sure your father’s isn’t originally from Michigan, and if he is, I will bet your Grandparents are from southern Ohio.

By: Becky

Becky — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 12:28:19 +0000

Try southern Ohio. It’s even written in the produce section of the grocery store.

By: Becky

Becky — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 12:25:58 +0000

I have never heard of anyone in the Midwest calling a bell pepper a Mango besides Ohio.

By: Dust Bunny

Dust Bunny — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 23:31:10 +0000

My father is from Iowa but I grew up out west and never heard this. However, my boss, who has lived in Texas for decades but is an Indiana native, mentioned recently that he had grown up calling bell peppers “mangoes”. He’s 60 at the most, so this terminology is apparently alive and well.

By: Candace

Candace — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 04:56:48 +0000

I grew up in the Cincinnati area, I’m nearly sixty years old now. My mother always referred to green peppers as mangoes when I was growing up. We had them stuffed with rice, meat and tomato sauce. They were sliced and put on veggie trays every holiday, had them in salads and a whole lot of other dishes. When I grew up and got a place of my own, started buying my own food, I noticed the store always calling them green peppers, that’s before we could get red, yellow and orange peppers. It took years before I got my mother to call them green peppers. I never used the term while my son was growing up. Probably why younger than 40 never heard it. We all had to change wording after the real mango came to town.

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 23:21:14 +0000

I grew up in north central PENNSYLVANIA (Williamsport), and I thought bell peppers were mangoes. I moved to Texas after high school and found out what mangoes were.
I told someone about having sauted mangoes and onions on a cheese steak sub, and they were like, “MANGOES?”
I was just transcribing an old handwritten recipe book from the ’20s – 40′s that was my grandmother’s. I came across a canning recipe for sandwich spread that included the ingredient: “1 1/2 doz. mangoes (red & green both)” HA! I finally googled it and came here.

By: Shining A Light On A Shifting Paradigm

Shining A Light On A Shifting Paradigm — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 19:54:05 +0000

[...] is considered a moral fault, a sign of laziness. And so, following a 30-second internet search, I found out why “mango” means “green pepper.” It’s actually a fascinating story, [...]

By: KentuckyFriedTony

KentuckyFriedTony — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:39:07 +0000

My step-mother was from Arkansas and moved to north central Indiana in her late teens. She always referred to green bell peppers as “mangoes”, so us kids did too!

She made a great stuffed mango (bell pepper) with rice and meat stuffed inside and baked.

I have lived in northern Kentucky near Cincinnati for years. Until about 20 years ago, I never even knew what an Asian/Indian mango was! I like them very much – especially the juice.

To this day I still have to try not to call a green pepper a mango to avoid confusion.

By: Lewis

Lewis — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 03:16:54 +0000

I’m from Ohio, and it’s pretty rare for anyone to call a pepper a mango, I don’t think I’ve heard anyone under 80 ever call it that. I don’t think it’s popular much anymore then again, I’ve only really lived in the central and eastern portion of the state, so it could be a western ohio thing.