maguey

English

Etymology

From Spanish maguey, from Taino maguey.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /məˈɡeɪ/

Noun

maguey (plural magueys)

1. Any of various large agaves of Mexico and the southern US, especially the American aloe, Agave americana.
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 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

   • 1985, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, Vintage 1992, p. 147:

     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.

• For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.

Spanish

Etymology

From Taino maguey.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /maˈɡej/

Noun

maguey m (plural magueyes)

1. maguey