kartoffel (Danish)

Where does "kartoffel" come from?

The Danish word 'kartoffel' traces its unlikely roots back to the Latin 'terrae tuber,' meaning 'tuber of the earth.' Through the Italian diminutive 'tartufolo,' this term for a truffle was adopted into German as 'Kartoffel' to describe the newly introduced potato, a staple which later inspired its use as a culinary-based ethnic slur.

Full etymology tree

• kartoffel (Danish), 'potato'
  • borrowed Kartoffel (German), 'potato'
    • borrowed tartufolo (Italian), 'synonym of tartufo'
      • compound tartufo (Italian), 'truffle'
        • inherited terrae tūber (Latin)
      • suffix -olus (Latin), 'alternative form of -ulus'

Ancestors

• Kartoffel (German)
• tartufolo (Italian)

Descendants and derived words

• kartafla (Icelandic)

Updated June 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris