Potatoe

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"Potatoe" is an archaic spelling of the word potato. The Oxford English Dictionary lists potatoe as a variant form, with the most recent usage cited from 1880: "She found the parson in his garden..making a potatoe pie for the winter." However, it is considered a misspelling in modern English. Although the English plural potatoes is spelt with an "e", the singular form is not, and no dictionary considers potatoe to be an acceptable modern spelling.

Former United States Vice President Dan Quayle became notoriously associated with this misspelling in a June 15, 1992 incident. Quayle went to a photo op at Munoz Rivera School in Trenton, New Jersey, where he was to officiate a spelling bee by drawing flash cards and asking students to write the words on the blackboard. Twelve-year-old William Figueroa wrote potato, but Quayle prompted the student to append an "e".^[1] The incident briefly made national news in the United States and became a source of entertainment for the tabloid newspapers in the United Kingdom.

For the June 25, 1992 airing of The Simpsons episode "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish", Bart Simpson's opening blackboard punishment was hastily changed to read, "It's potato, not potatoe".

[edit] References

1. ^ Mickle, Paul. 1992: Gaffe with an 'e' at the end. Capitalcentury.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-01.