Sweet potato

:For the musical instrument, see ocarina.

Names

The moist-fleshed, orange cultivars of sweet potato are occasionally referred to as "yams". One explanation of this confusion is that it started with African slaves brought over from the west coast of Africa. Africans brought to America took to calling American sweet potatoes Nyamis (a Senegalese word meaning "to eat"), which referred to the plant grown in Africa, but not seen in North America. The true yam, however, can grow up to 2 m (6 ft) in length (sometimes with knuckle-like ends), has a scaly skin, has a pinkish white center, and has a thick, almost oily feel to the tongue.

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After the confusion started over one hundred years ago, many farmers and stores began marketing American-grown sweet potatoes as yams; the name stuck. In more recent times there has been an effort to stop the use of "yam" for sweet potatoes, but this has only been partially successful. USDA branding regulations require the word "Yam" to be accompanied by the words "Sweet Potato" when referring to these moister sweet potatoes.

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Starchy, white-fleshed types are sometimes called batatas or boniatos, from dialectal Spanish terms which in Spanish refer generically to all types of sweet potato. The more specific meaning in English derives from the association in some English-speaking regions between the starchy types and Spanish-speaking Caribbean immigrants.

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Substratum names used in local varieties of English include kumara (from Maori) in New Zealand, and to some degree camote (from Spanish) in the southwestern United States.

Related Topics:
Substratum - Maori - New Zealand - Southwestern United States

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