maguey

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See also: magüey

English

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Maguey agave plant with blossoms

Etymology

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Borrowed from Spanish maguey, from Taíno *mawei.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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maguey (plural magueys)

  1. Any of various large agaves of Mexico and the southern US, especially the American aloe, Agave americana.
    Synonyms: agave, pita, century plant
    • 1899, Consular Reports: Commerce, manufactures, etc, page 375:
      Tequilla and mescal are similar, both liquors being distilled fom the maguey plant.
    • 1947, Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, page 138:
      “Well: hardly,” said the Consul, softly as before, casting a suspicious eye for his part in the other direction at some maguey growing beyond the barranca, like a battalion moving up a slope under machine-gun fire.
    • 1985, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian [] , →OCLC:
      [] and they rode through strange forests of maguey—the aloe or century plant—with immense flowering stalks that rose forty feet into the desert air.
    • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 424:
      through black fields, where tlachiqueros brought sheepskins slung across their backs full of fresh maguey juice to be fermented, and campesinos in white lined the right-of-way

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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Spanish

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Taíno *mawei.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /maˈɡei/ [maˈɣ̞ei̯]
  • Rhymes: -ei
  • Syllabification: ma‧guey

Noun

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maguey m (plural magueyes)

  1. (Latin America) maguey (large species of agave)
    Synonym: pita

Derived terms

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Further reading

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