aguacate

Forms

aguacate m (plural aguacates)^[1] Old variants include ahuacate, still found in Mexico, Peru and Ecuador, abacatl in Motolinía and alguacate in Torquemada (1615), also a popular form in Venezuela.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Classical Nahuatl āhuacatl (“avocado; testicle”).^[3][1][4][5] Gómez de Silva and Santamaría explain the second meaning by the shape of the fruit.^[5][6] Corominas notes that Motolinía (1541) and Molina's Nahuatl dictionary (1571) already have the Aztec word.^[7][8] The Spanish word was also adapted as avocado, the source of French avocat.^[9][10]

From Spanish come Portuguese abacate, Galician aguacate and Asturian aguacate.^[1] Through Spanish the Nahuatl word also gave the English word avocado.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hits in the CDH are in Motolinía's Historia de los indios de la Nueva España (1536–1541), where the Indians call the olives they first saw aguacates pequeños “little avocados”, and in Bartolomé de las Casas, who says that the fruits called aguacates in the Mexican language look like the pears of Castile.^[11] Corominas's first record is Las Casas, about 1560.^[7][4]

Semantic evolution

Sixteenth-century chroniclers used the word for both the tree and its fruit, from Mexico to the Amazon and Peru.^[11][2] Oviedo (1535–1557) already distinguishes three kinds of the tree and notes that it is called cura in parts of New Granada.^[2][12] In South America the usual word is palta.^[7]

Autoridades (1726) records aguacate only as a kind of emerald, round or oblong and less perfect.^[13] The Academy added the tree and the fruit by 1770.^[2] Its 1843 edition explained the gem's name by its likeness to the fruit.^[14] The 1899 edition gave it a Mexican etymology.^[15]

In Central America, Colombia and Ecuador the name of the fruit is also used of a weak or spiritless person.^[3][16] In Mexico the dish of mashed avocado is guacamole, from Nahuatl āhuacamōlli.^[7]

Timeline

• 1536–1541 – aguacates in Motolinía's Historia de los indios de la Nueva España.^[11]
• 1541 – Gaspar de Carvajal's account of the Amazon mentions the fruit que en lengua de la Nueva España se llaman aguacates.^[11]
• 1548 – Oviedo describes the tree in Santo Domingo.^[12]
• 1553 – Cieza de León lists aguacates among the fruits of Peru.^[17][11]
• c. 1560 – Las Casas, the first record in Corominas.^[7][4]
• 1571 – Molina's dictionary has auacamulli, a dish of avocados with chili.^[12][7]
• 1726 – Autoridades records the word only as a kind of emerald.^[13]
• 1763 – the English word avocado, from Spanish.^[10]
• 1899 – the Academy gives a Mexican etymology.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The avocado tree (Persea americana), a tree of the laurel family native to America, with evergreen leathery leaves and edible fruit.^[3][18]
2. The fruit of this tree: Corta el aguacate por la mitad y quítale el hueso.^[3][1][18]
3. An emerald cut in the shape of a small pear.^[3][13]
4. (El Salvador, Guatemala) A weak or spiritless person; also as an adjective.^[3][16]
5. (Colombia, colloquial) A police officer.^[1]

Word family

• aguacatero
• aguacatal

Related words

• guacamole
• palta
• Classical Nahuatl āhuacatl

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. aguacate
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. aguacate
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aguacate
5. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. aguacate
6. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 56
7. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 81
8. ^ Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 43
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. aguacate
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. aguacate
12. ^ a b c Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. aguacate
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 126
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 20
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 29
16. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 74
17. ^ Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. aguacate
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. aguacate