mango
Formsmangoes, mangoing, mangoed
- 1The sweet tropical fruit produced by the mango tree, with soft orange flesh around a single large pit.
He peeled a ripe mango and ate it over the sink.
The market stall was piled high with golden mangoes from the orchard.
UsageSay a mango, two mangoes for whole fruit, and some mango or diced mango for the flesh.
Note
Hans Sloane, in a 1738 letter in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions, later published in English, knew the fruit as an import: "that great Plum, which comes pickled from thence, and is called Mango." That pickle is the thread behind stuffed imitation pickles.
- 2A tropical Asian tree, Mangifera indica, cultivated for its sweet fruit.
A mature mango can reach nearly a hundred feet tall in ideal conditions.
Farmers graft young mango trees to bring them into fruit sooner.
UsageOften mango tree to make the tree clear. The plural is mangoes or mangos.
Note
In English the tree and its fruit share one word, so context decides which is meant. In Bruce Chatwin's The Viceroy of Ouidah (1980), a man lies "in the shade of a mango", and only the tree fits there.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Bruce Chatwin wrote The Viceroy of Ouidah, first published in 1980. en.wikipedia.org
- The novel's narration describes a man lying in the shade of a mango, meaning the tree. en.wiktionary.org
- 3A shade of orangey yellow resembling the flesh of a mango.
The designer paired deep teal with a vivid mango for contrast.
Her scarf glowed a soft mango in the afternoon light.
Less common meanings
- 4To stuff a fruit with a spicy filling and pickle it.
For this cookbook, I made mangoed peppers that were not stuffed with cabbage, but stuffed with green and red tomatoes and onions.
2008, Beverly Ellen Schoonmaker Alfeld, Pickles To RelishAlthough any melon may be used before it is quite ripe, yet there is a particular sort for this purpose, which the gardeners know, and should be mangoed soon after they are gathered.
1870, Hannah Mary Peterson, The Young Wife's Cook BookUsageThe forms are mangoes, mangoing and mangoed, as in mangoed peppers.
Similarpickle
Note
William Woys Weaver's America Eats (1989) traces the practice. English cooks trying to reproduce the pickle took to "mangoing" cucumbers and unripe peaches. Americans preferred baby musk melons or, where those grew poorly, bell peppers. The verb is uncommon now, though Beverly Ellen Schoonmaker Alfeld's Pickles To Relish (2008) still makes mangoed peppers.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- William Woys Weaver wrote America Eats, first published in 1989. en.wikipedia.org
- America Eats discusses the history of this pickling practice. en.wiktionary.org
- English cooks made substitute mango pickles from cucumbers and unripe peaches. gutenberg.org
- Americans preferred baby muskmelons, substituting bell peppers where those melons grew poorly. en.wiktionary.org
- Beverly Ellen Schoonmaker Alfeld wrote Pickles to Relish, published in 2008. pelicanpub.com
- The book's publication year is 2008. pelicanpub.com
- Alfeld describes making mangoed peppers in that book. en.wiktionary.org
- 5A bell pepper, especially a green one.
Cut tops from mangoes; remove seeds.
1943, Mary Adgate, “Stuffed Mangoes”Mango peppers by the dozen, if owned by the careful housewife, would gladden the appetite or disposition of any epicure or scold.
1879, Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture, Agriculture of PennsylvaniaNote
This is dated American regional usage, and it can trip up anyone reading old farm reports or recipes. Allan A. Metcalf's How We Talk (2000) explains that in the South and North Midlands, mangoes "aren't the tropical fruit" but green peppers. Older texts often say "mango peppers", as an 1879 Pennsylvania agricultural report does. A 1943 Ohio recipe simply says "mangoes".
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- The pepper sense is dated American regional usage. en.wiktionary.org
- Allan A. Metcalf wrote How We Talk, published in 2000. americandialect.org
- Metcalf identifies mangoes in the South and North Midlands as green peppers and uses the quoted words. en.wiktionary.org
- An 1879 Pennsylvania agricultural report uses “mango peppers.” en.wiktionary.org
- A 1943 Ohio recipe uses “mangoes.” en.wiktionary.org
- 6A fruit or vegetable that has been stuffed with a spicy filling and pickled.
In Pennsylvania and western Maryland, mangoes were generally made with green bell peppers.
2004, Elizabeth E. Lea, William Woys Weaver - 7Any of several tropical hummingbirds of the genus Anthracothorax.
- 8A variety of muskmelon, the melon species Cucumis melo.
- 9A slang term for a woman's breasts.
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Origin
English got the word from Portuguese "manga," which came from Malayalam "māṅṅa" or Tamil "māṅkāy," possibly through Malay "mangga." Behind these lies Proto-South Dravidian *mām-kāy, meaning "unripe mango," formed from *mām ("mango tree") and *kāy ("unripe fruit"). English used it for the fruit by the 1580s and for the tree by the 1670s. Where the final -o comes from is uncertain.