Alligator Pears (the fruit of Persea gratissima)
is a curious corruption. The aboriginal Carib word for the tree is “aouacate,” which the Spanish discoverers pronounced “avocado,” and English sailors called “alligator,” as the nearest approach which occurred to them.
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Entry taken from
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,
edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.