My son’s elementary school recently held a spelling bee. This year’s event set a record for the number of rounds before finally crowning a spelling champ. I know one word that might have been caused a pause for the spellers competing — “sweetpotato”.
No, that wasn’t a typo. The word “sweetpotato” is one word. Everyone, including me, has been spelling it incorrectly for years. We can’t take all the blame for our spelling struggles. Many places, including the dictionary and online resources also spell it wrong. A campaign led by the North Carolina SweetPotato Commission (NCSPC) aims to correct the spelling once and for all and give the sweetpotato its rightful identity.
So why the one word versus two-word debate? Sit back for a science and English lesson.
Sweetpotatoes are often lumped in the same group as white potatoes. Not only are they not in the same family, the two crops aren’t even distant cousins. Sweetpotatoes are part of the morningglory family (Ipomoea batatas). Potatoes are related to tomatoes as part of the Solanum family.
While both crops grow underground, they are different parts of the plant. Sweetpotatoes are roots while potatoes are tubers (which their Latin name, Solanum tuberosum, gives us a clue).
Now comes the English lesson. Many people think the “sweet” is an adjective, describing a potato. The words “white,” “yellow,” and “red” are adjectives describing different types of potatoes. “Sweet” is not. The word “sweetpotato” is a noun, the formal name of North Carolina’s number one vegetable crop.
The National Sweetpotato Collaborators Group started using the one-word spelling in 1989 and began advocating for the change. It took time for the sweetpotato industry to catch on. I remember being scolded by a researcher at NC State University for spelling it as two words the first time I made a “Year in the Life of a NC Sweetpotato” poster.
In 2019 the NCSPC lobbied the state general assembly to make the change legal and it passed. Since then, the Commission has been working to get the spelling changed everywhere, which turns out to be quite the challenge.
Currently, the Commission has a petition on change.org, asking for signatures to support the correct spelling. This is the first step in getting some heavy hitters like the dictionary, online searches, and the AP style guide to make the change.
You may be wondering why this is important. Well, from growing to harvesting, storing, selling, buying, and cooking, these two crops are completely different. As a consumer, if I cook a potato and a sweetpotato the same way, I’m not going to have a good meal. They aren’t the same crop and should not be treated as such. Other countries have been using the one-word spelling for years and it’s time for the United States to catch up.
While your head is already spinning with this information, let me go ahead and add that sweetpotatoes and yams (Dioscorea sp.) aren’t the same crop either.
So, take note of the correct spelling of sweetpotato because it just might be the winning word in next year’s spelling bee.
