Traditional
Still common
Definition
Potato.
Example Sentence
"Mash the spuds for dinner."
Where "Spud" Comes From
Borrowed from an older English slang term for a spade or digging tool, which gradually shifted to refer to the potato itself — the very thing being dug up.
It's now a widely used casual word for potato across much of the English-speaking world, though it remains especially common in everyday Australian speech.
How Aussies Actually Use It
A casual, everyday alternative to "potato" — "mash the spuds for dinner" is standard kitchen talk across Australian households.
It's used without a second thought in recipes, shopping lists, and dinner-table conversation, interchangeable with the more formal term.
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