Avocados ~ A Brief History

Humans have had a long relationship with avocados. The earliest written European record dates back to 1518 and evidence of avocado use dating back to 10,000 BCE has been found in a Mexican cave.

A Mexican criollo, the smaller fruit of an undomesticated avocado tree. Photo via AvocadoSource.

Avocados have been called "alligator pears", probably due to the appearance and texture of the skin and it's shape, which resembles a pear. On some sailing vessels they became known as "butter pears" due to their creamy flesh ~ the sailors liked to scoop out the insides and spread it on crusty bread like butter.

The word avocado can be traced back to the Spanish word aguacate, which is a corruption of a Nahuatl (Aztecan) word, ahuacatl. This word translates to "testicle". The wild ancestors of today's avocado were much smaller and slightly rounder. Because they hang together in pairs and bunches on the tree, it is easy to imagine how they brought this body part to mind. The Aztec people considered avocados to be a fertility food.

Indeed, rumors abounded about the avocado when they were brought to the U.S. Many people believed the avocado contained potent properties that would give an eater an uncontainable sexual prowess. Proper men and women refused to be seen buying them in public, lest they be accused of scandal ~ those silly Victorians!

Avocado growers had to launch a public marketing campaign to overcome it's naughty reputation before the fruit could become the popular item it is today. There are still many cultures around the world that believe they increase virility.