Hot pepper

A chili pepper, so: spicy, hot, or a little daring.

Most of the time it is literal. People put it on photos of tacos, ramen, curry or a jar of homemade hot sauce to say "this one burns", and they borrow the restaurant-menu habit of counting chilies: on many menus 🌶️ is mild and 🌶️🌶️🌶️ means bring water, though each menu sets its own scale. From there it slides into the slang senses of "spicy" and "hot". A spicy take is an opinion that will start an argument, spicy gossip is the juicy kind, and a "spicy" photo is a revealing one. And because "hot" also means attractive, the pepper can be a compliment on its own.

The thing in the picture is a chili, the fruit of a plant first grown in the Americas that spread across the world after 1492, becoming a staple of Mexican, Thai, Indian, Korean and Sichuan cooking. Its burn is not heat at all: a compound called capsaicin triggers the same nerves that sense scalding, which is why water helps only for a moment and milk does better (its protein binds the capsaicin). Pepper heat is measured on the Scoville scale, from the gentle bell pepper to chilies that need gloves.

What does it mean when someone sends you 🌶️?

Read the words around it; the pepper only adds heat.

After a dish, a recipe or a restaurant name, it just means the food was spicy — usually praise, sometimes a warning. As a reply to your selfie, or tucked after a compliment, it means they find you hot and are flirting a little; it is softer and more deniable than 🍆, which is a big part of its appeal. Sent after a piece of news or an opinion, it means "that's spicy": bold, provocative, bound to cause drama. If you want to tell a coworker the lunch curry was fierce, name the dish in the same sentence, and nobody will wonder what you meant.