alligator pear
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
The "alligator" is likely an alteration of Spanish aguacate, perhaps influenced by the similarity in texture between the skin of the fruit and of an alligator.
Noun[edit]
alligator pear (plural alligator pears)
- (dialectal, now chiefly Caribbean and Southern US, especially Louisiana) An avocado.
- 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 52”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
- There was a tree just behind which bore alligator pears, and all about were the cocoa-nuts which gave the land its revenue.
Related terms[edit]
- pear (“avocado”) (Jamaica)
Translations[edit]
avocado — see avocado