Potatoes
[puh-tey-toh, -tuh] /pəˈteɪ toʊ, -tə/
noun, plural potatoes.
1.
Also called Irish potato, white potato. the edible tuber of a cultivated plant, Solanum tuberosum, of the nightshade family.
2.
the plant itself.
3.
(defs 1, 2).
/pəˈteɪtəʊ/
noun (pl) -toes
1.
Also called Irish potato, white potato
2.
any of various similar plants, esp the sweet potato
3.
(slang) hot potato, a delicate or awkward matter
n.
1560s, from Spanish patata, from a Carib language of Haiti batata “sweet potato.” Sweet potatoes were first to be introduced to Europe; in cultivation in Spain by mid-16c.; in Virginia by 1648. Early 16c. Portuguese traders carried the crop to all their shipping ports and the sweet potato was quickly adopted from Africa to India and Java.
The name later (1590s) was extended to the common white potato, from Peru, which was at first (mistakenly) called Virginia potato, or, because at first it was of minor importance compared to the sweet potato, bastard potato. Spanish invaders in Peru began to use white potatoes as cheap food for sailors 1530s. The first potato from South America reached Pope Paul III in 1540; grown in France at first as an ornamental plant. According to popular tradition, introduced to Ireland 1565 by John Hawkins. Brought to England from Colombia by Sir Thomas Herriot, 1586.
German kartoffel (17c.) is a dissimilation from tartoffel, ultimately from Italian tartufolo (Vulgar Latin *territuberem), originally “truffle.” Frederick II forced its cultivation on Prussian peasants in 1743. The French is pomme de terre, literally “earth-apple;” a Swedish dialectal word for “potato” is jordpäron, literally “earth-pear.”
Colloquial pronunciation tater is attested in print from 1759. Potato chip (n.) attested from 1879. To drop (something) like a hot potato is from 1824. Children’s counting-out rhyme that begins one potato, two potato first recorded 1885 in Canada. Slang potato trap “mouth” attested from 1785.
noun
Related Terms
couch potato, hot potato, meat and potatoes, small potatoes, sweet potato
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Read Also:
- Potato flour
noun an ultrafine, gluten-free flour made from cooked dried potatoes, used for baking or as a thickener Examples Potato flour is also produced in many countries, with slices of cleaned potatoes being dried, ground, and sieved. Word Origin by 1792 Usage Note cooking
- Potato-head
noun A stupid person (1832+)
- Potato-leafhopper
noun 1. any of various leafhoppers that are serious pests, damaging a wide variety of cultivated and wild plants, especially potatoes. 2. a small, light green, white-spotted leafhopper, Empoasca fabae, that is a pest of potatoes in the eastern U.S. and also attacks apple trees and numerous other cultivated plants.
- Potato-moth
noun 1. a gelechiid moth, Phthorimaea operculella, the larvae of which feed on the leaves and bore into the tubers of potatoes and other solanaceous plants.
- Potato patch
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