Alphonson.
/alˈfɒnsəʊ/, /alˈfɒnzəʊ/, U.S. /ælˈfɑnsoʊ/, /ælˈfɑnzoʊ/ More fully Alphonso mango. A small yellow or orange mango variety native to and chiefly cultivated in western India, which is highly prized for its sweet, perfumed flesh; (also) the tree which bears this fruit.
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1800 J. Anderson Recreations in Agric. II. 224 Mr. Johnson has likewise been so good as to take charge of two engrafted Alphonso mango trees.
1873 Garden 11 Oct. 299/1 The Alphonso is also still cultivated at Goa, where, however, the conditions of soil, &c., are not so favourable.
1907 Country Life Amer. Feb. 446/2 As much as one dollar a dozen cannot be called an unusual price in India for the finest types of the Bombay Alfonso mango.
1982 I. Habib in Cambr. Econ. Hist. India viii. 218 The Portuguese succeeded in producing the well-known grafted variety of mango, the Alphonso.
2007 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 10 June i. 18/3 There's the Alphonso, a small, yellow mango that is among the nation's sweetest, and the Khattu, with its reddish skin.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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