Green Gold: The History of the Avocado

Quote, "A pulpy, green-to-purple-skinned, nutty-flavored fruit of any of various tropical American trees, genus Persea, especially P. americana, of the laurel family," end quote.

Whereas Encyclopedia Britannica says, quote, "Avocado fruits have greenish or yellowish flesh with a buttery consistency and a rich, nutty flavor," end quote.

It should be noted here, though, that avocados, as said above, is a fruit and a berry.

Its name, avocado, comes from the Spanish word aguacate.

Spanish conquistador and historian Pedro de Cieza de León first used the word in his writings in 1550.

He wrote about aguacate plants in Peru, Panama, Ecuador, and Colombia.

Francisco Hernández Salazar, another Spanish historian, first wrote in 1554 that aguacate grew in Mexico.

According to an article in the South African Avocado Growers' Association Yearbook, in 1589, an English person called Hawkes first referred to the avocado in a published writing referring it to avocado, which is derived from the Spanish word aguacate.

So we've got avocados deriving from the Spanish word aguacate.

How did the Spanish get that word? It goes back to the Aztec times from the 14th to the 15th century.

The Aztecs spoke the Nahuatl language, and they called avocado ahuacatl, which meant testicle.

Apparently, the Aztecs thought that the avocado shape reminded them of this body part.

Another theory is the Aztecs came up with the avocado's Nahuatl name supposedly due to its aphrodisiacal qualities.

Hmm.

In Northern America and Britain, it was known as the alligator pear.

It is believed that in 1696, Baronet Sir Hans Sloane first wrote the name of this fruit in an English publication, quote, "The Avocado or Alligator-Pear Tree," end quote.

Fun fact, Sloane was an Irish physicist whose collection of, quote, "Books, manuscripts, and curiosities formed the basis of the British Museum," end quote.

Back to our story.

It was originally called alligator pear because it was shaped like a pear and had a bumpy, greenish skin like an alligator.

There you go.

It wasn't until 1915 that the California avocado farmers decided to switch to the other name Sloane had used for the fruit, the avocado.

The name alligator pear was apparently bad for business.

In 1927, the farmers even pled, quote, "That the avocado, an exalted member of the laurel family, should be called an alligator pear is beyond all understanding.

The avocado, as a matter of fact, bears no resemblance to an alligator or a pair of alligators or whatever the alligator mistakes for a pair," end quote.

But that is why we now call it avocado.