potato: [16] Potato was originally the English name for the ‘sweet potato’ (when Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor 1598 cried ‘Let the sky rain potatoes!’ it was to the sweet potato, and its supposed aphrodisiac properties, that he was referring). It did not begin to be used for the vegetable we now know as the potato until the very end of the 16th century. The word comes via Spanish patata from batata, the name for the ‘sweet potato’ in the Taino language of Haiti and other Caribbean islands.
potato (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.
双语例句
1. How do you spell "potato"?
potato这个词怎么拼写？
来自柯林斯例句
2. The potato cakes should be crisp outside and meltingly soft inside.
土豆饼应该外面酥脆,里面嫩软.
来自柯林斯例句
3. Now experts are extolling the virtues of the humble potato.
现在专家们都在赞美其貌不扬的马铃薯的种种好处。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Left-handers have trouble using can-openers, scissors, and potato peelers.
左撇子在使用开罐刀、剪刀和土豆削皮器时会有困难。
来自柯林斯例句
5. Put both vegetables into a bowl and crush with a potato masher.
