/əˈɡɑːveɪ/, /əˈɡeɪviː/
OriginLearned borrowing from Ancient Greek Ἀγαυή (Agauḗ, “Agave”), from ἀγαυός (agauós, “noble, illustrious”).
- Any plant in the large, variable genus Agave of succulent plants, commonly armed with formidable prickles, flowering at maturity after several years, and generally dying thereafter; large species, such as the maguey or century plant, (Agave americana), produce gigantic inflorescences.
“On the mountains a few junipers and piñons are found, and cactuses, agave, and yuccas, low, fleshy plants with bayonets and thorns.”
“1893 Charles Richards Dodge, A Report on the Leaf Fibers of the United States. Pub: Govt. print. office Washington
The work of cutting the leaves, even from these isolated plants, was in the nature of”
“It was one of the large, vicious varieties of agave, each individual plant an upturned rosette of stiff, fibrous, fleshy leaves, some of them over a meter long on the big parent plants.”
Formsagaves(plural)
Source: Wiktionary