Another Word For Sweet Potato

If you're not arguing about politics or whether or not information technology's fourth dimension for Grandma to become some more grandchildren, there'south one topic that's e'er guaranteed to brand a splash at the Thanksgiving dinner table: are thoseyams or sweetness potatoes?

"Wait a 2nd," you might be saying, "aren't they the aforementioned matter?"

Have another bite and permit us to become to the root of the deviation between sweet potatoes and yams and the means in which the two terms sometimes overlap, too every bit the origins of the words—and the vegetables.

⚡Quick summary

Yams and sweet potatoes are not the same thing—they are both root vegetables, simply they are different vegetables with different flavors and textures. However, sweet potatoes are sometimes referred to as yams, particularly in the United states of america, due to a resemblance and historical associations. Things called canned yams and candied yams are usually sweetness potatoes.

**What is a yam?**

Yams are the starchy, tuberous, edible roots of plants of the genus Dioscorea. They're native to parts of Asia and Africa and can grow to be extremely large, with some weighing over 100 pounds! They typically have a whitish-yellowish flesh.

The word yam is ultimately derived, via Portuguese or Castilian, from a Due west African language called Wolof, from the word nyam, meaning "to sample" or "taste." Similar words for yam in other African languages derive from words meaning "to eat" and "to chew."

A true yam has crude pare and starchy mankind, unremarkably white, purple, or tinted red. We say true yam considering the name yam is sometimes used to refer to a sugariness potato. More on that below.

**What is a sweet potato?**

The sweet potato is the sweet, starchy, edible root of the institute species Ipomoea batatas, of the morn glory family. They come in different colors, but the orange-fleshed multifariousness is especially well-known. Sweet potatoes are native to Cardinal and South America. They're a popular ingredient in the U.s.a. and in parts of Northward, Central, and South America.

Sweet potatoes aren't in the aforementioned family unit as potatoes, only the discussion potato derives from the give-and-take batata, which means "sugariness tater" in the Taíno language.

Lookout: Why Are At that place So Many Definitions For The Word "Sweet"?

**Are yams and sweet potatoes the same?**

Both yams and sugariness potatoes are edible roots grown for food. And the proper name yam is sometimes used to refer to sweet potatoes. Merely no, yams and sweet potatoes are not the same vegetable.

So…

**What'southward the divergence between yams and sweet potatoes?**

Yams and sugariness potatoes are in fact two different vegetables. They belong to unlike genuses. And they're native to different parts of the earth. Yams are native to parts of Asia and Africa. And sweet potatoes are native to Cardinal and South American and the American torrid zone. The confusion and association between the two vegetables in the United states of america is rooted in the history of colonization and slavery in Due north America.

Sweet potatoes are believed to take been a pregnant source of nourishment for early on European colonizers in the Americas. When African peoples were enslaved and forcibly brought to labor in Due north America and other places in the Americas, they identified many local ingredients with those they had known in Africa. Because the sweet potato somewhat resembled the root vegetable they were familiar with—the yam—they used that name for sweet potatoes.

Even though yams are non widely grown or available in the US, the clan has continued. In some cases, sugariness potatoes are even sold as yams. This is especially the instance for some popular canned varieties—which are called canned yams but are actually sweetness potatoes. (The United states Department of Agronomics tries to assist confused consumers past requiring that sweet potatoes marketed as yams be besides labeled every bit sweet potatoes.)

That dish you call candied yams? Too (usually) sweet potatoes. Chances are, unless yous're shopping in a specialty grocery, it'south probable that the fresh vegetables you see on the shelves in the Us are sweet potatoes and non yams.