Why is spud called spud

The second most popular theory says that the spud is the wooden barrel and the name of potatoes came after that barrel. This barrel is used by the sorters who use it to separate the smaller potatoes from the bigger ones. These two theories are most popular in the support of the origination of the name, though there are many more to tag along. Anonymous answered. After the spudder which is a garden instrument used to dig up potatoes. Answer Question. As if often the case with such boring word origins, a fanciful explanation for the derivation of spuds is often given.

This explanation is owed to the potato once being a much-maligned root in Britain and Europe. In fact, when the potato was first introduced to Europe via the Spanish, in the 16th century, it was only grown as a curiosity in botanical gardens. As for food, it was considered only fit for pigs and, perhaps, poor country folks. Perhaps not too far off the mark, it was also said to cause obesity, but, in addition, the potato was even blamed for war!

Some etymologists claimed that this was the origin for the potato being called a spud. Since the word spuddy was once the nickname for a seller of bad potatoes, it has also been supposed that the word spud derived from this.

However, the word spud is almost certainly earlier. Yet another curious suggestion for the origin of spud for potato has to do with another name for a potato that is common in Ireland: Murphy.

Although this may have been an older usage that has died out, it is likely that the above suggested origin for the word spud is not credible. This article contains one or more Amazon affiliate links. To subscribe to his "Daily Knowledge" newsletter, click here. One commonly cited explanation for why we call potatoes spuds goes like this: A 19th century activist group called The Society for the Prevention of an Unwholesome Diet, or SPUD, was formed to keep potatoes out of Britain.

This group didn't want anyone eating the tubers. But it's clear that Pei was wrong about where the nickname originated, for one very good reason: Previous to the midth century, abbreviations were prevalent in text, but pronouncing them as words was not something people typically did—that's a very modern phenomenon.