Smashed potatoes . . .

Jesse Sheidlower jester at PANIX.COM
Fri Jan 12 17:10:54 UTC 2007


On Fri, Jan 12, 2007 at 12:06:52PM -0500, Charles Doyle wrote:
> Yesterday the Food Channel's Rachael Ray was discussing "smashed potatoes."  I assumed the phrase was just another of her many annoying cuteisms.
>
> However, the phrase has a whopping 1,090,000 Google hits, in comparison with just 1,400,000 for "mashed potatoes."
>
> Does "smashed" represent a childish misunderstanding or mispronunciation of "mashed"?  I wouldn't have supposed the verb "mash" is any less transparent or intelligible than "smash."
>

In my experience, smashed potatoes are not equivalent to mashed potatoes.
The former are typically coarsely crushed, so that small lumps remain,
and often retain the skin.

Of course there might be eggcornish uses or other types of misunderstanding
as well.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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