Vocabulaire français des métiers en contexte
A1 French listening practice · French · Curated for beginners
Does “avocat” mean lawyer or avocado in French?
Un avocat is the person who defends the accused in court. Un avocat is also the green fruit you mash for guacamole. Same spelling, same pronunciation, and context normally does the sorting: mon avocat outside a courtroom is a lawyer, un toast à l’avocat at brunch is not. When it could genuinely go either way, French adds a word — l’avocat de la défense, un demi-avocat.
The clash is not a coincidence. The lawyer word comes from Latin advocatus, “called to someone’s side.” The fruit came the long way round: Nahuatl āhuacatl → Spanish aguacate, which Spanish speakers pulled towards the familiar abogado (“lawyer”) to give avocado — and French borrowed that, landing squarely on a word it already had. The tree keeps them apart: un avocatier.