alligator pear

4.9

A green pear-shaped fruit with creamy yellow flesh and a large seed

noun
/ˈælɪˌɡeɪtər pɛr/

: aguacate

In salads, alligator pears add a unique texture and flavor that many people enjoy.

Examples

They call them alligator pears back East, cost a fortune.

Fury (1936)
Do you know how alligator pears are made?

The Cocoanuts (1929)
Take all the alligator pears and keep 'em.

The Cocoanuts (1929)
Do you know how many alligator pears are sent out of this state every year and told not to come back?

The Cocoanuts (1929)
Take its fruits, take the alligator pears.

The Cocoanuts (1929)
I made a delicious guacamole using ripe alligator pears for the party.
He decided to try an alligator pear for the first time and found it creamy and rich.

Synonyms

avocado

vsalligator pear

49 1.0

A pear-shaped fruit with rough green or black skin, creamy yellow-green flesh and a large central seed

focuses on the fruit's shape skin flesh and large central seed

aguacate

vsalligator pear

1 8.8

A pear-shaped green or black fruit with soft yellow flesh and one large seed

is the English term used instead of the Spanish form

avocado pear

vsalligator pear

Archaic

2.3

A soft fruit with rough green or dark skin, yellow-green flesh, and a large seed in the middle

is the single-word common name rather than the longer phrase

avo

vsalligator pear

Australian

7.7

A green fruit with soft flesh often mashed and spread on toast

uses the neutral descriptive name rather than the casual shortened form

Surface Forms

alligator pear singular

alligator pears plural

Morphology

Alligator + pear

The compound is transparently descriptive: 'pear' signals a fruit and 'alligator' modifies its appearance (rough, bumpy skin), so the overall meaning of a pear-shaped fruit with alligator-like skin is directly inferable from the parts. This follows common noun+noun compounding patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely understand it denotes a particular fruit (i.e. avocado) even if they do not know that specific synonym.

Etymology

Alligator pear may come from the fruit's rough, bumpy skin like an alligator and its pear-like shape like a pear. So, that image is why the name was used for the fruit we now call an 'avocado'.