potato = potato
^patata (Spanish)
^
batata (Carib or Taino) 'sweet potato'
Our word potato comes from Haiti and the word batata, the Carib or Taino name for the sweet potato. It becomes patata, in Spanish and then potato in English. We don't have any meaning beyond the name of the vegetable.
Sweet potatoes and white potatoes are brought to Europe from the Americas in the 1500s. Both the Spanish and Portuguese use this as food for their sailors and the potato quickly spreads through from port to port around the world. The white potato originates from Peru.
The French word pomme de terre is 'apple of the earth' or 'fruit of the earth' because pomme means fruit generally. Similarly, there is a Swedish word jordpäron 'earth pear'.
The German word kartoffel comes from the Italian tartufolo. This is probably from the Latin word tuber 'edible root' which became terræ tuber 'earth root' which became tartuffo, another Italian word for potato. This is also probably the root truffle 'edible fungus' which comes from the Latin tufera.
Related Words
- pomme or apple via the French word for potato, pomme de terre.
- tomato. The ending ‘o’ sound in tomato was probably added as an imitation of potato
- truffle.
Translated
- pomme de terre French
- patata Italian
- patata Spanish
- kartoffle German
- solanum tuberosum - scientific latin
References:
- OED