Irish apricot
An obsolete and mildly derogatory British slang term for a potato, playing on the Irish association with potato cultivation and the absurd incongruity of calling something as humble as a potato by the name of an exotic fruit.
Definitions
An obsolete and mildly derogatory British slang term for a potato, playing on the Irish association with potato cultivation and the absurd incongruity of calling something as humble as a potato by the name of an exotic fruit. The joke hinges on the central role of the potato in Irish diet and culture, particularly before and after the Great Famine. The term reflects the kind of ethnic humor common in 18th–19th century British slang and is now entirely obsolete. Historically interesting as an artifact of anti-Irish prejudice in British popular culture.
The satirical pamphlet mocked the colonial dinner party where 'Irish apricots' were served as the evening's grand delicacy.
Comments
(obsolete, slang) A potato.
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- Irish fruit86%
An obsolete, ironic British slang term for a potato, playing on the historical stereotype of Irish dependence on the potato as a food staple. The term dates from a period when anti-Irish sentiment was widespread in Britain, and reflects the cultural shorthand that conflated Irish identity with potato farming and consumption. It is entirely archaic and would now be considered ethnically offensive. It appears in historical dictionaries and texts about British slang but has no living usage.
- Irish fruit79%
(obsolete, slang) A potato.
- praty70%
An Irish and dated English word for a potato, derived from the Irish 'práta.' Used in historical and literary contexts relating to Ireland, particularly around the Great Famine period (1845-1852) when potatoes were central to Irish rural diet and identity. Still occasionally used in Irish English for nostalgic or humorous effect.
- bog orange69%
An obsolete British slang term for a potato, leaning into the historical association between Ireland ('the bog') and the potato. The term dates from an era when the potato was so central to Irish subsistence that it became a cultural shorthand — used with varying degrees of humor and contempt. Today 'bog-orange' reads primarily as a historical curiosity, a relic of the slang dictionaries that documented 18th and 19th century British street vocabulary.