avocado

Meanings

Noun

• The large, usually yellowish-green or black, pulpy fruit of the avocado tree.
• The avocado tree, Persea americana, of the laurel family.
• A dark chartreuse colour, like the colour of the skin of an avocado.

Adjective

• Of a dull yellowish-green colour.

Origin

• Borrowed from American Spanish avocado, altered—by folk-etymological association with abogado—from the earlier aguacate, which comes from Classical Nahuatl āhuacatl. abacate.
• The first mention can be found in the 1696 catalogue of Jamaican plants.