Avocado

Fun with Words:

Alligator Pear, Avocado, Aguacate, Palta

Alligator Pear

Took this picture in China. It's funny because in Chinese crocodile is 鳄鱼(crocodile+fish) and avocado is 鳄梨(crocodile+pear). Reminded me of those old Jeeves and Wooster books by P.G. Wodehouse. They call avocados "alligator pears."

Avocado

After learning Spanish, I wondered why we call it avocado and in Spanish, it's called aguacate. Both words come from āhuacatl, the Nahuatl word for the fruit (and their word for "testicle").

In the Dictionary of Word Origins, John Ayto said,

"The Spanish conquistadors took the word over as aguacate, but before long this became altered by folk etymology (the substitution of familiar for unfamiliar forms) to avocado (literally 'advocate' in Spanish). When English borrowed the word, folk etymology took a hand yet again, for in the late 17th century it became known as the alligator pear, a name which survived into the 20th century."

Now "advocate" is written as abogado. And in Spanish, they use the word aguacate to be very different from abogado.

In South American countries use the word palta, from the Quechua word for the plant.