kartoffel

From German Kartoffel.

kartoffel (plural kartoffeln or kartoffels)

1. (rare, in German context) A potato.
   • 1868, Charles G[odfrey] Leland, “Breitmann in Battle”, in Hans Breitmann’s Party. With Other Ballads., Philadelphia, Pa.: T. B. Peterson & Brothers;  […], page 7:

     I’ll shplit dem like kartoffels: […]

   • 1890 August 20, “Boys Will Be Boys”, in D. M. Frost, L. A. Lauber, editors, The Globe-Republican, volume XIII, number 43, Dodge City, Kan.: Globe-Republican Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page [5], column 4:

     During this interval the farmer missed the potatoes and came up the street in search of the miscreant who carried them away, when he espied boy No. 2, and without demanding any explanation the old man proceeded to wallop the youth, saying, “What for you steal my kartoffeln; I show you.”

   • 1900 May, Ellen A. Smith, “The Price of an Inspiration”, in The Argosy, volume LXXI, London, →OCLC, page 67:

     “How commonplace you are! As if the Goddess of every German did not live in the kitchen and spend her very soul in making him fat. Your Katinka will have no second idea beyond kartoffeln and pickled cabbages!” / He looked down a little shyly, yet smiling. / “But she will love me, and the kartoffeln and cabbages shall be but her care of me. Love has a thousand voices, yet are they not lowly or despised.”

   • 1957, News and Views, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, page 15:

     One man who reported that the occasion was the first time he had ever attended the races or bet on a horse in his life confessed to having donated forty kartoffels to the cause.

   • 1980, T[homas] Coraghessan Boyle, “Rock & Roll Heaven”, in Joe David Bellamy, editor, Moral Fiction: An Anthology, Canton, N.Y.: Fiction International, →ISBN, page 42:

     Neighbors roasted chestnuts, kartoffels and bratwurst, raised steins of black beer and stamped over the floorboards of the tiny apartment.

   • 2003, Trailblazer‎^[1], volumes 61–63, 70th Infantry Division Association, page 10:

     At the end of his speech and knowing what the Kriegies’ diet had been, he turned to the cooks and said “OK, start serving the kartoffels and turnips.”

   • [2004], Grandon E. Tolstedt, Stories of the Forties, →OCLC, pages 196 and 200:

     Big Jim Lockett is in command, and with the aid of about ten others enough items of food are collected among the 60 of us (bullion cubes, kartoffels, some carrots, salt, oleo, etc.) to make a good soup with seconds all the way around. […] We sat by the fire all-day and bashed. We fried kartoffels, baked kartoffels, boiled kartoffels and really filled ourselves up.

   • 2005, John Pritchard, “Shaw’s Notebooks—Bone Face—Shaw Runs Off—Sheep”, in Junior Ray: A Novella, Montgomery, Ala.: NewSouth Books, →ISBN, page 45:

     In the distance the patrol approaches at port arms, in a line of skirmishers, Teutonic, in search of Celts. […] I do not share their fondness for kartoffels.

   • 2011 August 24, Karen Herzog, “Potato love: Late summer brings the potato harvest”, in The Bismarck Tribune, Bismarck, N.D., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1C, column 2:

     From Ireland’s signature crop to Germany’s hearty kartoffeln, France’s pommes frites, even Russian vodka, potatoes may not always be the star of the meal, but they certainly take the best supporting actor award.

   • 2017 August 30, “Culinary calendar”, in The Spokesman-Review, volume 135, number 81, Spoke, Wash., →ISSN, →OCLC, Food section, page 5, column 2:

     While all of these are must-try eats, one wouldn’t be able to leave town without a bit of kartoffeln ‘n kloess and locally made German sausage.

   • 2017 September 21, Sam Jefferson, “In the land of the lotus eaters”, in The Sea Devil: The Adventures of Count Felix von Luckner, the Last Raider under Sail, London; New York, N.Y.: Osprey Publishing, →ISBN, page 118:

     [T]heir first thoughts after finding out if they were still at war was of kartoffels and comic supplements.

Borrowed from German Kartoffel, from Italian tartufolo, diminutive of tartufo (“truffle”).

• IPA^(key): /kɑˈtɔfəl/, /kaˈtɔfəl/, [kʰɑ̈ˈtsʰɒ̽fəl], [kʰæ̝ˈtsʰɒ̽fəl]

kartoffel c (singular definite kartoflen or kartoffelen, plural indefinite kartofler)

1. potato
2. (slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) whitey (A derogatory word used about ethnic Danes, mostly used by Danish citizens of non-Germanic origin.)

• bagekartoffel
• læggekartoffel

• → Icelandic: kartafla

• “kartoffel” in Den Danske Ordbog