Editing Avocado (section)

== History ==
[[File:Avocado firstInternationalShipment.jpg|thumb|First international air shipment of avocados from Los Angeles to Toronto for the [[Canadian National Exhibition]], 1927]]

The earliest known written account of the avocado in Europe is that of [[Martín Fernández de Enciso]] ({{circa|1470}}{{snd}}1528) in 1519 in his book, ''[[Suma de Geographia|Suma De Geographia Que Trata De Todas Las Partidas Y Provincias Del Mundo]]'', while describing the native settlement of Yaharo (present-day [[Dibulla, La Guajira|Dibulla]], Colombia).<ref name="IF">{{cite web |author=<!--Staff writer; no by-line.--> |year=2007 |title=Avocado History |url=http://www.indexfresh.com/avocado_history.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071225063117/http://www.indexfresh.com/avocado_history.htm |archive-date=25 December 2007 |access-date=29 December 2007 |work=IndexFresh.com |publisher=Index Fresh Avocado |location=[[Bloomington, CA]]}}</ref><ref name="WCA">{{cite web |last=Stradley |first=Linda |year=2004 |title=All About Avocados: History of the Hass Avocado |url=http://whatscookingamerica.net/avacado.htm <!--Staff writer; no by-line.--> |access-date=13 May 2008 |work=What'sCookingAmerica.net |publisher=self-published |location=[[Newberg, OR]]}}</ref> The first detailed account that unequivocally describes the avocado was given by [[Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés]] in his work ''Sumario de la natural historia de las Indias'' in 1526, while holding administrative Spanish colonial duties in [[Santo Domingo]] and visiting [[Castilla de Oro]].<ref name="Ayala SilvaLedesma2014">{{cite book |last1=Ayala Silva |first1=Tomas |title=Sustainable Horticultural Systems |last2=Ledesma |first2=Noris |year=2014 |isbn=978-3-319-06903-6 |series=Sustainable Development and Biodiversity |volume=2 |pages=157–205 |chapter=Avocado History, Biodiversity and Production |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-06904-3_8}}</ref> The first written record in English of the use of the word 'avocado' was by [[Hans Sloane]], who coined the term,<ref name="Ayala SilvaLedesma2014" /> in a 1696 index of Jamaican plants. 

=== Etymology ===
The word ''avocado'' comes from the Spanish {{lang|es|aguacate}}, which derives from the [[Nahuatl]] (Mexican) word {{lang|nci|āhuacatl}} {{IPA|nah|aːˈwakat͡ɬ|}},<ref>[http://whp.uoregon.edu/dictionaries/nahuatl/index.lasso Nahuatl Dictionary/Diccionario del náhuatl] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161203034759/http://whp.uoregon.edu/dictionaries/nahuatl/index.lasso |date=3 December 2016 }}. Whp.uoregon.edu. Retrieved on 25 July 2013. </ref> which goes back to the [[Proto-Nahuan language|proto-Aztecan]] {{lang|nah|*pa:wa}}.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Dakin, Karen |year=1982 |title=La evolución fonológica del Protonáhuatl |publisher=[[Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México]], Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas |location=México D.F. |isbn=978-968-5802-92-5 |oclc=10216962|page=210|language=es}}</ref> In [[Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana|Molina's Nahuatl dictionary]] "auacatl" is given also as the translation for ''compañón'' "testicle",<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/vocabulariodela00platgoog/page/n287/mode/2up?q=Auacatl|author=Molina Alonso de, Julius Platzmann |year=1880 |title=Vocabulario De La Lengua Méxicana. Edición facsimilaria |publisher= B.G. Teubner |location=Leipzig |oclc=11400907 |language=es}}</ref> and this has been taken up in popular culture where a frequent claim is that testicle was the word's original meaning. This is not the case, as the original meaning can be reconstructed as "avocado" – rather the word seems to have been used in Nahuatl as a euphemism for "testicle".<ref>{{cite journal|author=Pharao Hansen, Magnus|year=2021|volume=42|issue=3|pages=9–12|title=Avocado og testikelsovs:et internet meme og en aztekisk etymologi (Avocados and testicle sauce: an internet meme and an aztec etymology|journal=Mål og Mæle|url=https://magnuspharao.files.wordpress.com/2021/12/mom_42-3-m_pharao.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/guacamole-means-testicle-sauce/|title=Does the Word 'Guacamole' Mean 'Testicle Sauce'?|website=Snopes |author=Brooke, Binkowski|date=February 9, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://nahuatlstudies.blogspot.com/2016/02/no-snopescom-word-guacamole-does-not.html|title=No Snopes.com, the word guacamole does not come from the Nahuatl word for "ground testicles or avocados"|website=Nahuatl Studies |type=Blog |author=Magnus Pharao Hansen |date=February 10, 2016}}</ref>

The modern English name comes from a rendering of the Spanish {{lang|es|aguacate}} as {{lang|es|avogato}}. The earliest known written use in English is attested from 1697 as ''avogato pear'', later ''avocado pear'' (due to its shape), a term sometimes corrupted to ''alligator pear''.<ref name="mw">{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/words-from-nahuatl-the-language-of-the-aztecs/tomato |title=8 Words from Nahuatl, the Language of the Aztecs |work=Merriam-Webster |access-date=April 7, 2022}}</ref><ref>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', second edition (1989), articles "avocado", "alligator, n.2"</ref><ref name="morton" />

==== Regional names ====
In Central American, Caribbean Spanish-speaking countries, and Spain<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://dle.rae.es/palta|dictionary=[[Diccionario de la lengua española]]|publisher=Real Academia Española|title=aguacate}}</ref> it is known by the Mexican Spanish name {{lang|es|aguacate}}, while South American Spanish-speaking countries Argentina, Chile, Perú and Uruguay use a [[Quechua languages|Quechua]]-derived word, {{lang|es-419|palta}}.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://dle.rae.es/palta|dictionary=[[Diccionario de la lengua española]]|publisher=Real Academia Española|title=palta}}</ref> In Portuguese, it is {{lang|pt|abacate}}. The Nahuatl {{lang|nah|āhuacatl}} can be compounded with other words, as in {{lang|nah|ahuacamolli}}, meaning avocado soup or sauce, from which the Spanish word {{lang|es|[[guacamole]]}} derives.<ref>{{Cite OED|guacamole|id=82081}}</ref>

In the United Kingdom the term ''avocado pear'', applied when avocados first became commonly available in the 1960s, is sometimes used.<ref name="Scotsman">{{cite news |url=http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/twiggy-squares-up-to-sainsbury-s-in-the-avocado-wars-1-1352962 |title=Twiggy squares up to Sainsbury's in the avocado wars |date=23 May 2009 |work=[[The Scotsman]] |access-date=14 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214181923/http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/twiggy-squares-up-to-sainsbury-s-in-the-avocado-wars-1-1352962 |archive-date=2017-02-14 }}</ref>

Originating as a [[diminutive in Australian English]], a [[clipping (morphology)|clipped]] form, ''{{lang|en-AU|avo}}'', has since become a common colloquialism in South Africa and the United Kingdom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-07-31 |title=From the Aztecs to avo, the scoop on 'avocado' and 'guacamole' |url=https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3187052/aztecs-avo-scoop-avocado-and-guacamole-its |access-date=2023-03-21 |website=South China Morning Post |language=en}}</ref>

It is known as "butter fruit" in parts of India<ref>{{cite news | url =http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/16/stories/2010041656650300.htm | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20100421062158/http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/16/stories/2010041656650300.htm | archive-date =21 April 2010 | newspaper =[[The Hindu]] |title=Avocado holds promise for Wayanad farmers|date=16 April 2010}}</ref> and Hong Kong.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Conversation |first=The |date=2017-05-14 |title=What is China's role in the global avocado shortage? |language=en-GB |work=Hong Kong Free Press |url=https://hongkongfp.com/2017/05/14/chinas-role-global-avocado-shortage/ |access-date=2022-10-31}}</ref>