The Spanish word 'palto' (meaning 'avocado tree') comes from the Spanish word 'palta' (meaning 'avocado'), which in turn was borrowed from Quechua 'pallta', also meaning 'avocado'. This is one of many words that Spanish acquired from indigenous American languages during the colonization of the Americas. The transformation from 'palta' (the fruit) to 'palto' (the tree) follows a common Spanish pattern where masculine -o endings are used to denote trees that produce a particular fruit.

A closely related and more common Spanish word is 'palta', which means 'avocado' (the fruit itself). This is actually the word still commonly used for avocado in many South American countries, while other Spanish-speaking regions tend to use 'aguacate'.

There are no etymologically related English words, as 'palto' and 'palta' come from the indigenous Quechua language of South America. English instead uses 'avocado', which comes from the Nahuatl word 'ahuacatl' through Spanish 'aguacate'.