[av-uh-kah-doh, ah-vuh-] 
| 1. | Also called alligator pear. a large, usually pear-shaped fruit having green to blackish skin, a single large seed, and soft, light-green pulp, borne by the tropical American tree Persea americana and its variety P. adrymifolia, often eaten raw, esp. in salads. |
| 2. | the tree itself. |
| alligator pear n. See avocado. [By folk etymology from American Spanish aguacate, avocado (the trees are said to grow in areas infested by alligators); see aguacate.] |
| av·o·ca·do (āv'ə-kä'dō, ä'və-) n. pl. av·o·ca·dos
[American Spanish, alteration (influenced by obsolete Spanish avocado, lawyer) of Nahuatl ahuacatl.] Word History: The history of avocado takes us back to the Aztecs and their language, Nahuatl, which contained the word ahuacatl meaning both "fruit of the avocado tree" and "testicle." The word ahuacatl was compounded with others, as in ahuacamolli, meaning "avocado soup or sauce," from which the Spanish-Mexican word guacamole derives. In trying to pronounce ahuacatl, the Spanish who found the fruit and its Nahuatl name in Mexico came up with aguacate, but other Spanish speakers substituted the form avocado for the Nahuatl word because ahuacatl sounded like the early Spanish word avocado (now abogado), meaning "lawyer." In borrowing the Spanish avocado, first recorded in English in 1697 in the compound avogato pear (with a spelling that probably reflects Spanish pronunciation), we have lost some traces of the more interesting Nahuatl word. |
