avocado
[av-uh-kah-doh, ah-vuh-]
- 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, especially in salads.
- the tree itself.
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Origin of avocado
1690–1700; alteration of Spanish abogado literally, lawyer (see advocate), by confusion with Mexican Spanish aguacate < Nahuatl āhuacatl avocado, testicle; cf. alligator pear
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for avocado
Contemporary Examples
De Merode sits at a long table and digs into a plate piled with rice, beans, and avocado.
“I have three piles of fundraising,” she said, pushing aside a sliced egg and avocado salad to demonstrate.
Any time of the day here is good to try tayoyos, an oval-shaped cake made of masa and stuffed with beans and avocado leaves.
Chipotle noted in a recent investor letter that they might cut back on their signature guacamole because of avocado scarcity.
Of note: The bracketed [a] in the titles means that this is an avocado, as opposed to a male [m] or female [f].
Five Subreddits You May Have Missed, and Probably Still Should Give a MissKelly Williams Brown
April 5, 2014
Historical Examples
The avocado pear-tree, I should think, has no relations among trees!
Adventures of a Young NaturalistLucien Biart
I will be sure to send some avocado plants from Los Angeles to Wardha.
Autobiography of a YOGIParamhansa Yogananda
He looks part human and part beetle and has a face the color of the meat of an avocado.
Operation EarthwormJoe Archibald
In Florida and southern California the avocado or alligator pear is being extensively cultivated.
Trees Worth KnowingJulia Ellen Rogers
Avocado, a-vo-k′do, n. the alligator-pear, a West Indian fruit.
avocado
- a pear-shaped fruit having a leathery green or blackish skin, a large stony seed, and a greenish-yellow edible pulp
- the tropical American lauraceous tree, Persea americana, that bears this fruit
- a dull greenish colour resembling that of the fruit
- (as modifier)an avocado bathroom suite
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Also called (for senses 1, 2): avocado pear, alligator pear
Word Origin
C17: from Spanish aguacate, from Nahuatl ahuacatl testicle, alluding to the shape of the fruit
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for avocado
n.
1763, from Spanish avocado, altered (by folk etymology influence of earlier Spanish avocado "lawyer," from same Latin source as advocate (n.)) from earlier aguacate, from Nahuatl ahuakatl "avocado" (with a secondary meaning "testicle" probably based on resemblance), from proto-Nahuan *pawa "avocado." As a color-name, first attested 1945. The English corruption alligator (pear) is 1763, from Mexican Spanish alvacata, alligato.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper