potato family
- noun
- /pəˈteɪtoʊ ˈfæmɪli/
- Specialized
:
familia de las solanáceas
- Nicotine is found in tobacco plants, which are also part of the potato family.
Examples
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The potato family includes many important crops.
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The potato family includes both edible and toxic plants.
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Many common vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants belong to the potato family.
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Did you know that the potato family contains tomatoes?
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Many people are allergic to foods from the potato family, such as tomatoes and eggplants.
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The potato family includes various plants that can be either nutritious or toxic.
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Farmers often rotate crops from the potato family to maintain soil health.
Synonyms
A family of flowering plants that includes potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, tobacco, and petunias
A group of flowering plants like potatoes and tomatoes that people eat, but some are poisonous
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase "potato family" simply denotes a family (a group/class) that includes potatoes and related species, so the meaning can be directly derived from combining "potato" (the plant) with "family" (a grouping). Although somewhat botanical, this noun + family construction is a regular, compositional pattern found cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words should be able to infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Potato family comes from naming a group of related plants after a well-known member, the potato. The word family is like a real family—plants that are related, such as tomatoes, peppers, and tobacco—so the phrase means 'a group of related plants'.
