alligator pear

English

Etymology

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

alligator pear (plural alligator pears)

1. (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

• pear (“avocado”) (Jamaica)

Translations

avocado — see avocado