potato

English Online Dictionary. What means potato‎? What does potato mean?

English

Alternative forms

• potatoe (obsolete)
• p'tater, tater (dialectal or informal)

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish patata, itself borrowed from Taíno batata (“sweet potato”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: pə-tāʹtō, Rhymes: -eɪtəʊ
• (UK) IPA^(key): /pəˈteɪ.təʊ/
• (Canada, US) IPA^(key): /pəˈteɪ.toʊ/, [-ˈteɪ.ɾoʊ], (colloquial, sometimes) /pəˈteɪ.tə/
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /poˈʈæʈoː/, Rhymes: -ætəʊ
• (Philippines) IPA^(key): /poˈteɪ.to/

Noun

potato (countable and uncountable, plural potatoes)

2. Solanum tuberosum or its edible starchy tuber.
   • 1917, Knut Hamsun, Growth of the Soil, Book 1, Ch.4, at p.34:

     What was that about potatoes? Were they just a thing from foreign parts, like coffee; a luxury, an extra? Oh, the potato is a lordly fruit; drought or downpour, it grows and grows all the same. It laughs at the weather, and will stand anything; only deal kindly with it, and it yields fifteen-fold again. [...] A man may lack grain to make bread, but give him potatoes and he will not starve. Roast them in embers, and there is supper; boil them in water, and there's a breakfast ready.
3. (obsolete) A sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas)
4. (informal, UK) A conspicuous hole in a sock or stocking.
5. A person or animal shaped like a potato, that is, with a large belly and/or short legs.
6. Metaphor for a person or thing of little value.
   1. (slang, offensive) A mentally handicapped person.
   2. (humorous) A camera that takes poor-quality pictures.
   3. (humorous, slang, computing) An underpowered computer or other device, especially when small in size.

Synonyms

• (plant): p'tater (dialectal), spud (slang), tater (Britain, US, informal), tatie (Scotland, Cumbria, dialect), tator (eye dialect)
• (vegetable): Donovan (archaic slang), earthapple (rare), murphy, bog orange (obsolete slang), Irish apricot (obsolete slang), Irish fruit (obsolete slang), mickey
• (low-end computer): toaster (slang)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

potato (third-person singular simple present potatoes, present participle potatoing, simple past and past participle potatoed)

1. (slang, transitive) To hit very hard; to pummel.
2. (transitive) To hit with a thrown or fired potato.

Interjection

potato

1. (onomatopoeia, often repeated) The rhythmic sound produced by a V-twin engine—a distinctive deep, throaty exhaust note.

References

Anagrams

• patoot, topato

Ido

Etymology

Borrowed from English potato.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /poˈtato/
• Rhymes: -ato

Noun

potato (plural potati)

1. potato

   Synonym: terpomo

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /poˈta.to/
• Rhymes: -ato
• Hyphenation: po‧tà‧to

Participle

potato (feminine potata, masculine plural potati, feminine plural potate)

1. past participle of potare

Anagrams

• optato, topato

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [poːˈtaː.toː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [poˈt̪aː.t̪o]

Verb

pōtātō

1. second/third-person singular future active imperative of pōtō

Participle

pōtātō

1. masculine/neuter dative/ablative singular of pōtātus