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Glite Dictionary
little potato

little potato

9.8
A plant disease that makes potatoes small and misshapen
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : enfermedad del tubérculo
  • Symptoms of little potato include small, misshapen tubers with black scurf.

Examples

  • Some farmers lost entire crops due to the spread of little potato in the wet season.

  • Controlling little potato requires crop rotation and certified seed potatoes.

  • The farmer discovered a little potato in his field.

  • Have you seen any little potatoes this season?

  • Symptoms of little potato include small, misshapen tubers with black scurf.

  • Controlling little potato requires crop rotation and certified seed potatoes.

  • Some farmers lost entire crops due to the spread of little potato in the wet season.

Synonyms

rosette
vslittle potato
  • Specialized
9.9

A disease of potato plants that makes them grow poorly and leaves turn yellow

affects underground tubers, causing abnormal or misshapen storage organs

Surface Forms

little potato singular
little potatoes plural

Morphology

little + potato

A B1 learner who knows 'little' and 'potato' will naturally interpret 'little potato' as 'a small potato'; the disease sense (a rhizoctonia-caused disorder) is a specialised, non-compositional technical meaning not derivable from the constituents. Because the intended medical/agricultural sense is unpredictable from the words and requires domain knowledge, the expression is opaque.

Etymology

Little potato comes from farmers who found tiny, misshapen potatoes caused by a kind of fungus. The literal picture of a little potato that failed to grow makes it easy to remember that the term means 'a disease that makes potatoes small'.