Guacamole Pronunciation

Hi there, you have A Way with Words. Hi, Martha. This is George from Elgin, Illinois.

Hey, George, welcome to the show. I’d be interested in a comment from you folks on a conversation I had with my sister about six months ago.

We were talking about Mexican restaurants in the area, and I commented to her that my wife and I are real fond of one in particular because of the great guacamole they have. And she got a funny look on her face. And I said, okay, what’s going on? She said, it’s guacamole. You don’t say guacamole unless you’re in Mexico. And I said, what? I said, you’ve got to be kidding. I thought maybe this was a joke and I was waiting for the punchline, but it turned out she was dead serious. And it’s been bugging me ever since. My daughter-in-law’s from Mexico. So the next day I called her up. She said, I’ve never heard of guacamole. So I figured I’d call the experts.

No, your sister is the one who said it’s supposed to be pronounced guacamole?

Yes.

Where did she get that idea?

Yeah, I want to know.

I have no idea. I asked her. I said, I’ve never heard that. I mean, I’m not a kid. I’m 67 years old. I said, I’ve never heard anyone say guacamole. I said, I know there’s mole sauce. Is that mole as well? Nobody would eat it if it was called mole sauce.

I know.

It sounds like guacamole.

Yeah.

Which is something completely different. Did she explain her reasoning why she thought it should be pronounced guacamole?

No, she just apparently said she knows that in Mexico it’s guacamole and anywhere else in this country it’s guacamole. So I’ve got to get to the bottom of it. It’s just kind of festering with me.

Oh, boy. So I could see we’ve actually talked about this on the show and got a huge, wonderful response from people where we talked about intentionally mispronouncing words. But clearly she’s not intentionally mispronouncing this in a way to be funny. She’s intentionally mispronouncing because she thinks she’s over-applying logic. She’s trying to over-apply.

Well, you’ve corrected me.

Yeah, well, maybe that’s it. Maybe she just wants to one-up her brother.

But she’s wrong.

She’s wrong. Let’s just get that out of the way. Her pronunciation is incorrect. Now, are Americans pronouncing the word exactly as Mexicans do?

No, but it’s close. You know, it’s about as close as you can. It’s kind of semi-anglicized. And we don’t fully anglicize foreign words when we borrow them. I think of things like coup d’etat, where we retain a fairly decent approximation of the original French. Some words we do fully anglicize, but this word has been with us for centuries. And it’s every dictionary that you check, even going back into the Spanish language dictionaries, the pronunciation is very akin to guacamole. And the English dictionaries, every single English dictionary. I mean, what dictionary is she using?

Oh, I don’t know if she used a dictionary or not, but she was just adamant that I was pronouncing it incorrectly. And I just could not believe what I was hearing because I’ve never heard anyone except her say guacamole.

I wonder if she says hyperbole instead of hyperbole.

Could be. I don’t know. But it looks like I may have won this one.

No, you did clearly and thoroughly. And so she owes you Mexican food every weekend for the rest of your life.

That’s right. Maybe she’s just pulling your leg really hard.

Yeah, is she a deep joker?

I thought about that, but I don’t think so. I’m going to give her a chance to redeem herself. My birthday’s next week. I’m going to make her take me to a Mexican restaurant for some guacamole and make her order it using that pronunciation.

That’d be great.

Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate it, and I’m going to chalk one up for me.

Thanks, George. Let us know, by the way, if she insists. And if she wants to call with her point of view, you give her our number, all right?

That’s a great idea. I will suggest that if I get too much argument.

There you go. Buen provecho. Take care now.

Thank you much.

Okay.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

You know, I didn’t want to bring it up, but we should talk about the etymology of guacamole.

Oh, yeah, sure.

Yeah.

Go for it.

Well, it comes from Nahuatl.

Nahuatl.

Yep. And the Aztecs word for avocado, which means literally testicle fruit.

Nice. And the mole is sauce, so it’s testicle fruit sauce.

Nice. And did you know that historically there has been guacamole with something different in Cuba?

No. It was a chopped up avocado with vinegar and a few spices, eaten more like a salad and not like a sauce.

Oh, no kidding.

Interesting, right?

That sounds delicious.

It does sound really good, doesn’t it?

Road trip.

Food words.

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