The revenge of Dan Quayle

A few months ago, your host had occasion to post on the proper spelling of a variety of avocado. At the time, it drew a comment or two, and then nobody thought any more of it.

Until last week, when SC received an e-mail from a reader who had Googled the word "avocados", specifically for the purpose of examining its usage as contrasted with the incorrect spelling "avocadoes". Specifically, the reader wished to know what led your host to use the correct spelling, instead of the one which happens to look analogous to other plurals of words ending in "o", like "tomatoes" and "potatoes" ([this is making me hungry -- ed.]). This intrigued your host a bit, and so he did some checking into word frequencies. Here's what he found:

-s -es Totals avocado 181,000 (95.0%) 9,600 (5.0%) 190,600 tomato 40,000 (0.9%) 4,300,000 (99.1%) 4,340,000 potato 60,000 (2.0%) 3,000,000 (98.0%) 3,060,000 Clearly, the proper spelling predominates in all cases, but it's also clear that there's a paradigm for pluralizing things that end in "o", and "avocados" violates it. So we might ask why. Fortunately, your host's correspondent anticipated that question and supplied an answer for it: in May of 1915, California growers met to form an association to market their crop, and decided both to coin the name to replace the then-common "ahuacate", and to standardize the plural of the new word "avocado" to not include an "e". Of course, usage has a habit of trumping the rules laid down by would-be grammarians, and so we find Merriam-Webster sanctioning both forms. Interestingly, however, American Heritage does not. SC doesn't have any sort of reference handy that indicates whether or not the decision to inflect a noun ending in "-o" with "-s" or "-es" is algorithmic. This list suggests there is no reliable rule. Which doesn't mean that there aren't prissy language mavens out there going around telling people that they must always use one or the other. Perhaps Dan Quayle was victimized by such a person, and if not for trying to fit "potato" into a non-existent paradigm, we might now be debating who would succeed him as president. September 08, 2004 in Pop Linguistics | Permalink TrackBack TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341cc02153ef00d8343503be53ef Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The revenge of Dan Quayle: Comments Charming story, but avocado was around long before 1915. Here's the OED's first few citations: 1697 Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 203 The Avogato Pear-tree is as big as most Pear-trees.. the Fruit as big as a large Lemon. 1763 Grainger Sugar-cane i. 422 And thou green avocato, charm of sense, Thy ripened marrow liberally bestow'st. (Note. The avocato, avocado, avigato, or as the English corruptly call it, Alligator-pear.) 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 30 Much esteemed in the West Indies under the name of the Avocado Pear. Posted by: language hat | September 08, 2004 at 12:07 PM Charming story, but avocado was around long before 1915. Here's the OED's first few citations: 1697 Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 203 The Avogato Pear-tree is as big as most Pear-trees.. the Fruit as big as a large Lemon. 1763 Grainger Sugar-cane i. 422 And thou green avocato, charm of sense, Thy ripened marrow liberally bestow'st. (Note. The avocato, avocado, avigato, or as the English corruptly call it, Alligator-pear.) 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 30 Much esteemed in the West Indies under the name of the Avocado Pear. Posted by: language hat | September 08, 2004 at 12:09 PM Verify your Comment Previewing your Comment Posted by:  |  This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted. Your comment could not be posted. Error type: Your comment has been posted. Post another comment The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again. As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments. Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate. Post a comment If you have a TypeKey or TypePad account, please Sign In You are currently signed in as (nobody). Sign Out (You can use HTML tags like <b> <i> and <ul> to style your text.URLs automatically linked.) Your Information (Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.) 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Comments

[language hat]

Charming story, but avocado was around long before 1915. Here's the OED's first few citations:

1697 Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 203 The Avogato Pear-tree is as big as most Pear-trees.. the Fruit as big as a large Lemon. 1763 Grainger Sugar-cane i. 422 And thou green avocato, charm of sense, Thy ripened marrow liberally bestow'st. (Note. The avocato, avocado, avigato, or as the English corruptly call it, Alligator-pear.) 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 30 Much esteemed in the West Indies under the name of the Avocado Pear.

[language hat]

Charming story, but avocado was around long before 1915. Here's the OED's first few citations:

1697 Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 203 The Avogato Pear-tree is as big as most Pear-trees.. the Fruit as big as a large Lemon. 1763 Grainger Sugar-cane i. 422 And thou green avocato, charm of sense, Thy ripened marrow liberally bestow'st. (Note. The avocato, avocado, avigato, or as the English corruptly call it, Alligator-pear.) 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 30 Much esteemed in the West Indies under the name of the Avocado Pear.