Small Potatoes

The Definition

"Small potatoes" refers to something that is insignificant, trivial, or petty. It is used to describe a person, an amount of money, or a problem that is "junk" when compared to something much larger, more important, or more profitable. It is the agricultural cousin to [Chicken Feed] and [Chump Change].

The Deep Dive

This idiom is a literal observation from the kitchen and the field, where size determines value and utility.

  • The Sorting of the Harvest: When potatoes are harvested, they are sorted by size. Large, robust potatoes are the prize—they are easier to peel, yield more food, and fetch a higher price at market. The "small potatoes" were historically seen as a nuisance; they were harder to process, often left for the "junk" pile, or fed to livestock because they weren't worth the labor of a formal meal.

  • The American Frontier: The phrase gained its metaphorical teeth in the early 19th-century United States. It was often expanded to the more colorful, "small potatoes and few in a hill," describing a crop so poor it wasn't worth digging up. By the 1830's, this was being used to describe politicians with no influence or businesses with no capital.

  • The Relative Insult: To call someone's efforts "small potatoes" is a way of "tilting the playing field" against them. It suggests that while they may be working hard, the scale of their work is so minor that it doesn't even register in the "big leagues."

  • Culinary Utility: Interestingly, in the modern culinary world, "small potatoes" (like fingerlings or new potatoes) have undergone a rebranding. They are now often sold as a premium product, proving that even "junk" knowledge and "small" things can increase in value if the context changes.

Fast Facts

  • Early Literature: One of the earliest recorded uses of the metaphorical sense appears in a 1836 issue of The Knickerbocker, a New York literary magazine.

  • The "Few in a Hill" Extension: This specific addition emphasized not just the small size of the potatoes, but the lack of quantity, indicating a total failure of productivity.

References

  • Ammer, C. (2013). The Dictionary of Clichés. Skyhorse Publishing.

  • Lighter, J. E. (1994). Historical Dictionary of American Slang.

  • Oxford English Dictionary. (2026). Agricultural Sorting and the Language of Social Hierarchy.