The orange flesh and the cream flesh/purple skin types are varieties of sweet potato. The name "yam" is used for sweet potatoes in some places, but is just one of many unrelated plants the name is applied to. Whilst some people may now use the word just to mean root, Europeans got the word from Africa, where something like it is found in various languages from Senegal to Kenya, where it is related to words meaning eat, chew or taste. It came into English via Portuguese or Spanish, who probably first encountered it in West Africa. In continental Portuguese, the word is inhame, which is pronounced in-yahm-(uh).

Hawaiian poi is not sweet potato, it is taro, Colocasia esculenta, an aroid. Eddoes are a variety of taro, which you wouldn't guess at first glance. There are other aroids with edible roots. The standard tropical yam we think of as growing in the tropics, long roots with a brown fibrous covering, are various Dioscorea species. However it shouldn't be confused with the similar looking long brown fibrous cassava roots, Manihot esculenta, which is quite different biologically, a euphorbia. So that is four different orders of plant I have mentioned.

The Antillean/Bahaman natives known as Taino called sweet potato "batata" - Columbus ate it under that name. Sweet potato is still called batata in Spanish. Standard potatoes were called papas in Quechua (the main Andean language), and that word is often used in Spanish of that region. The more standard spanish patata, leading to potato, is mix-up between papa and batata.

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 echinosum wrote:

Seems to me there are a) sweet potatoes (brown skin, white flesh) and b)
yams, brown or purple skin, orange flesh). One is called a yam, the
other is a sweet potato. In Canada, the yam is the orange-fleshed one,
grown in the U.S. We don't have the white dry one except in Caribbean
food shops.

The orange flesh and the cream flesh/purple skin types are varieties of
sweet potato. The name "yam" is used for sweet potatoes in some places,
but is just one of many unrelated plants the name is applied to. Whilst
some people may now use the word just to mean root, Europeans got the
word from Africa, where something like it is found in various languages
from Senegal to Kenya, where it is related to words meaning eat, chew or
taste. It came into English via Portuguese or Spanish, who probably
first encountered it in West Africa. In continental Portuguese, the
word is inhame, which is pronounced in-yahm-(uh).

I was taught some fifty-odd years ago at school (but I'm not saying that
this is right - just saying what I was taught at an old fashioned
grammar school) that yams were a yellow sweet potato whereas the white
ones were .... guess what? White sweet potatoes!

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk

In article ,
David Rance wrote:

I was taught some fifty-odd years ago at school (but I'm not saying that
this is right - just saying what I was taught at an old fashioned
grammar school) that yams were a yellow sweet potato whereas the white
ones were .... guess what? White sweet potatoes!

If any teacher had tried that one on us, even at primary school,
they would have been laughed out of the classroom! Of course,
that was in Africa :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Rusty Hinge wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:

In general British usage, only the big things originating (I assume)
in Africa are called "yams".

In my local friendly Asian foodshop they tell me that 'yam' just means
'root'.

Interesting, and beyond my learning...looks it up but it depends what
you mean by "mean", Senator. From OED it's certainly /applied/, with or
without qualifier, to a wide range of rooty things; but they don't offer
an origin beyond Portugoose and Spanish /igname/ etc.

But /nyama/, as eny skoolboy kno, is Swahili for "meat".

...But wait! The word, it says here, was, or is, even used in Scotland
for a particular stock-feed var of the ordinary potato. There's more to
be gleaned from what turns out to be a beautifully complicated
dictionary entry.

I see from a 1588 quotation that an early traveller in the East Indies
shared my attitude to turnips: "A fruite called Inany [It.
Ignami]:..lyke to our Turnops, but is verye sweete and good to eate"

--
Mike.

In article ,
Mike Lyle wrote:
Rusty Hinge wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:

In general British usage, only the big things originating (I assume)
in Africa are called "yams".

In my local friendly Asian foodshop they tell me that 'yam' just means
'root'.

As I said, it more-or-less meant "edible root" in west Africa in
the later 1940s, according to reliable sources.

Interesting, and beyond my learning...looks it up but it depends what
you mean by "mean", Senator. From OED it's certainly /applied/, with or
without qualifier, to a wide range of rooty things; but they don't offer
an origin beyond Portugoose and Spanish /igname/ etc.

But /nyama/, as eny skoolboy kno, is Swahili for "meat".

Completely wrong part of Africa. Sorry, but that's irrelevant.

..But wait! The word, it says here, was, or is, even used in Scotland
for a particular stock-feed var of the ordinary potato. There's more to
be gleaned from what turns out to be a beautifully complicated
dictionary entry.

Yup.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Interesting, and beyond my learning...looks it up but it depends what
you mean by "mean", Senator. From OED it's certainly /applied/, with or
without qualifier, to a wide range of rooty things; but they don't offer
an origin beyond Portugoose and Spanish /igname/ etc.

But /nyama/, as eny skoolboy kno, is Swahili for "meat".

Completely wrong part of Africa. Sorry, but that's irrelevant.

Hmm. That looks like an error in the OED. Swahili is not a
west African language. Hausa and Fulah are.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Mike Lyle wrote:
Rusty Hinge wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:

In general British usage, only the big things originating (I assume)
in Africa are called "yams".
In my local friendly Asian foodshop they tell me that 'yam' just means
'root'.

Interesting, and beyond my learning...looks it up but it depends what
you mean by "mean", Senator. From OED it's certainly /applied/, with or
without qualifier, to a wide range of rooty things; but they don't offer
an origin beyond Portugoose and Spanish /igname/ etc.

But /nyama/, as eny skoolboy kno, is Swahili for "meat".

Een gon nyama, gon nyama

Oops - that means 'He is a lion'

Or should that be 'loin', then?

D&RFC

..But wait! The word, it says here, was, or is, even used in Scotland
for a particular stock-feed var of the ordinary potato. There's more to
be gleaned from what turns out to be a beautifully complicated
dictionary entry.

It's from the Latin, as any fule kno - 'Caesar adsum jam forte, Brutus
adorat.' (Casca adsum dux?)


I see from a 1588 quotation that an early traveller in the East Indies
shared my attitude to turnips: "A fruite called Inany [It.
Ignami]:..lyke to our Turnops, but is verye sweete and good to eate"

And by these, a Scot would mean 'Swedish turnip'.

Bashit neeps!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!


--
Rusty

wrote:

But /nyama/, as eny skoolboy kno, is Swahili for "meat".
Completely wrong part of Africa. Sorry, but that's irrelevant.

Hmm. That looks like an error in the OED. Swahili is not a
west African language. Hausa and Fulah are.

Surprise-surprise! That's one dictionary I rarely refer to, preferring
Chambers, myself.

OED is the only dictionary in step with a lot of its entries, including
'-ized'.

--
Rusty

wrote:
Interesting, and beyond my learning...looks it up but it depends
what you mean by "mean", Senator. From OED it's certainly
/applied/, with or without qualifier, to a wide range of rooty
things; but they don't offer an origin beyond Portugoose and
Spanish /igname/ etc.

But /nyama/, as eny skoolboy kno, is Swahili for "meat".

Completely wrong part of Africa. Sorry, but that's irrelevant.

But that's why it was interesting. I was, however, trawling for Rusty: I
don't know more than ten words of Swahili, and that wasn't one of them.

Hmm. That looks like an error in the OED. Swahili is not a
west African language. Hausa and Fulah are.


Indeed.

--
Mike.

Rusty Hinge wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:
[...]

But /nyama/, as eny skoolboy kno, is Swahili for "meat".

Een gon nyama, gon nyama

Oops - that means 'He is a lion'

Or should that be 'loin', then?

D&RFC

Especially if there are any of the locals about: subject to correction,
as always, isn't that Zulu? (Once a Scout, always a Scout, after all.)
One of my few Swahili words is the one for "lion": /simba/.
[...]

--
Mike.

Rusty Hinge wrote:
wrote:

But /nyama/, as eny skoolboy kno, is Swahili for "meat".
Completely wrong part of Africa. Sorry, but that's irrelevant.

Hmm. That looks like an error in the OED. Swahili is not a
west African language. Hausa and Fulah are.

Surprise-surprise! That's one dictionary I rarely refer to, preferring
Chambers, myself.

Horses for courses: hammers smite nails, turnscrews turn screws.


OED is the only dictionary in step with a lot of its entries,
including '-ized'.

Home of lost causes, innit? But that's a rare betrayal of the guiding
historical principle.

--
Mike.

Mike Lyle wrote:
Rusty Hinge wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:
[...]
But /nyama/, as eny skoolboy kno, is Swahili for "meat".
Een gon nyama, gon nyama

Oops - that means 'He is a lion'

Or should that be 'loin', then?

D&RFC

Especially if there are any of the locals about: subject to correction,
as always, isn't that Zulu? (Once a Scout, always a Scout, after all.)
One of my few Swahili words is the one for "lion": /simba/.
[...]

Yes 'simba' is Swahili for lion.

Kwa heri ya kuonana.

--
Rusty

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Rusty Hinge wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:
[...]

But /nyama/, as eny skoolboy kno, is Swahili for "meat".

Een gon nyama, gon nyama

Oops - that means 'He is a lion'

Or should that be 'loin', then?

D&RFC

Especially if there are any of the locals about: subject to correction, as
always, isn't that Zulu? (Once a Scout, always a Scout, after all.) One of
my few Swahili words is the one for "lion": /simba/.
[...]

There's a camp site near here called Shamba, which I'm told means
"homestead" in Swahili. Another language in which I'm one word fluent.

Steve

shazzbat wrote:

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Rusty Hinge wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:
[...]

But /nyama/, as eny skoolboy kno, is Swahili for "meat".

Een gon nyama, gon nyama

Oops - that means 'He is a lion'

Or should that be 'loin', then?

D&RFC

Especially if there are any of the locals about: subject to
correction, as always, isn't that Zulu? (Once a Scout, always a Scout,
after all.) One of my few Swahili words is the one for "lion": /simba/.
[...]

There's a camp site near here called Shamba, which I'm told means
"homestead" in Swahili. Another language in which I'm one word fluent.

Shamba is a field (cultivated, not pasture)

Home - our home, that is, is kwetu. Kwenu OTOH, is your home. A
house/home is nyumba.

There are bound to be more local variants.

--
Rusty

Just been out in the rain and hail to bring in the sweet potato crop.
I haven't been through them all closely yet, but I have to say, this is our
best crop of them ever. Although I did notice a lot of holes, so on closer
inspection they may not be as good as I'm hoping.

From one standard sized raised bed, we appear to have a small trug's worth
of crop, so I don't know if you* would say that was good or not, but it's
certainly more than we've had in the past, and there are a few really good
sized tubers in there.

The thing I have to check now is what variety(ies) were there, as it looked
like there were 2 different colour roots, but only 1 colour sweet poato, so
I'm wondering if there were 2 varieties and 1 of them failed. (The ones we
have are all scarletty purple on the outside, orange on the inside)