section_path: Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  The English word "potato" comes from Spanish patata, in turn from Taíno batata, which means " sweet potato ", not the plant now known as simply "potato".
  
  The name "spud" for a potato is from the 15th century spudde, a short knife or dagger, probably related to Danish spyd, "spear". From around 1840, the name transferred to the tuber itself.
  
  At least six languages—Afrikaans, Dutch, French, (West) Frisian, Hebrew, Persian and some variants of German—use a term for "potato" that means "earth apple" or "ground apple".