Origin and history of almond

Andean mammal valued for its wool, 1792, from Spanish alpaca, probably from Aymara allpaca, which is related to Quechua (Inca) p'ake "yellowish-red." The unetymological al- is perhaps from influence of the many words in Spanish that contain the Arabic definite article (compare almond). The word is attested in English from c. 1600 in the form pacos.

Italian almond-flavored liqueur, 1945 (the original brand, Amaretto di Saronno, dates to 1851), from the Italian word for almond (q.v.), which did not acquire the unetymological -l- of its English cousin. It is sometimes confused with amoretto. Amoroso (literally "lover") as the name of a type of sweetened sherry is attested from c. 1870.

part of the brain, from Latin amygdalum "almond" (which the brain parts resemble), from Greek amygdalē "almond" (see almond). English had also amygdales "the tonsils" (early 15c.), from a secondary sense of the Latin word in Medieval Latin, a translation of Arabic al-lauzatani "the two tonsils," literally "the two almonds," so called by Arabic physicians for fancied resemblance.