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In Avocados
Why are avocados called avocados?
WORD HISTORY: The etymology of avocado takes us back to the Incas and Aztecs of Central America who spoke Nahuatl,a native language in antiquity which contained the word ah…uacatl 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 conquistadores 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. (MORE)
