Etymologically
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potato

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /pəˈteɪ.toʊ/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish patata,[2][3][4][5] a variant of Taino batata (“sweet potato”), from the Carib language of Haiti,[3][2][6] probably influenced by or blended with Spanish papa, potato, from Quechua.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The sweet potato: 1555 in the OED, 1565 in Barnhart and MWU, in Sir John Hawkins' Voyages, the 1560s in Etymonline.[7][2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

Sweet potatoes were the first to reach Europe, in cultivation in Spain by the mid-16th century,[3] and the Century Dictionary noted that English writers generally meant them by potato until the mid-17th century.[3] In the 16th and 17th centuries they were thought to be aphrodisiac,[7][8] and Word Origins explains Falstaff's let the sky rain potatoes in The Merry Wives of Windsor this way.[8] The name was extended in 1597 (the 1590s) to the white potato, native to the Pacific slopes of South America,[7][3] by likeness of the two edible tubers;[4] it was at first mistakenly called the Virginia potato, by false association with Sir Walter Raleigh.[3][2] The tuber of the white potato as food is from 1663.[7] Popular tradition says that John Hawkins introduced it to Ireland in 1565, and that Thomas Herriot brought it to England in 1586.[3] Anglo-Irish pratie is from 1781.[7] German Kartoffel is from Italian tartufolo, truffle, and French has pomme de terre, earth-apple.[3]

Timeline

  • 1555 – the sweet potato.[7]
  • 1597 – the white potato.[7]
  • 1663 – its tuber as food.[7]
  • 1781 – Anglo-Irish pratie.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A South American plant (Solanum tuberosum) grown for its starchy edible tubers.
  2. The tuber of this plant, cooked and eaten as a vegetable.
  3. A sweet potato.

Word family

  • tater
  • couch potato
  • duchess potatoes
  • hot potato
  • Irish potato
  • meat and potatoes
  • new potato
  • O'Brien potatoes
  • batata
  • sweet potato
  • spud

Usage notes

The plural is potatoes.[9] A hot potato is an awkward or delicate matter.[9]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins