maguey

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish maguey, from Taíno *mawei.

noun

1. Any of various large agaves of Mexico and the southern US, especially the American aloe, Agave americana.
   Tequilla and mescal are similar, both liquors being distilled fom the maguey plant. 1899, Consular Reports: Commerce, manufactures, etc, page 375
   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 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 424