4/20/2016 Fun Fact
Love avocados?
If so, this is your week! This week I’ll tell you about the history of the avocado/aguacate!
Upon looking up the avocado, I found that this fatty fruit has gone by many different names throughout history, thanks to language barriers and the ancient inability of people to properly remember foreign words~
Since age of cultivation in the Americas: Aztec- aoacatl(old word) /ahuacatl (modern translation) This word came from the Aztec word for testicle, given the outer appearance of the fruit. Avocados were said to have aphrodisiac qualities as well.
Between 1450-1475: Inca- palta “Tupac Inca Yupanqui marched to the province of Canari, and on the road he conquered another called Palta, whence they brought to the warm valley near Cuzco the wholesome and delicious fruit called Palta."
Between 1532-1550: Conquistador Pedro do Cieza de Leon- aguacate The Spaniards apparently could not pronounce the Aztec “ahuacatl” and rewrote the name, which has remained the same in the Spanish language today.
1589: First English mentioning of this food by an English merchant named Hawkes - alvacata
1696: Sir Hans Sloane, distinguished naturalist, referred to it as "The Avocado or Alligator Pear-Tree. It grows in gardens and fields throughout Jamaica."
1751: George Washington referred to them as agovago pears
Early 1900′s: The U.S. Department of Agriculture sent out a nation-wide survey to settle on one name for this fruit, and the general acceptance was avocado.
Want to learn more? Look at my source!
http://ucavo.ucr.edu/General/HistoryName.html