spud

Etymology

From Middle English spudde (“small knife”). Origin unknown; probably related to Danish spyd, Old Norse spjót (“spear”), German Spieß (“spear; spike; skewer”). Compare English spit (“sharp, pointed rod”). The use of the term for a potato was originally in New Zealand and Australian dialect and slang usage.

noun

1. (informal) A potato.
   We were peeling spuds on afternoon detail back of the lodge at summer camp — Billy Dean and I, and two or three more — and as usual arguing about whether the camp work ought to be done that way or not[…] 1927 May, Boys' Life, page 8
   You can praise God by peeling a spud if you peel it to perfection. Don't compromise. Compromise is a language of the devil. Run in God's name, and let the world stand back and in wonder. 1981, Colin Welland, Chariots of Fire, spoken by Rev. J.D. Liddell
2. (informal) A hole in a sock.
   He leans over to one side to get the light, as he darns a hole in the heel of a sock. He is getting pretty smart at it now, and no longer makes spuds in the sock to chafe his heels. 1958, Michael Kennedy Joseph, I'll Soldier No More: A Novel
   He was getting tall too, and his trousers were short even though his turn-ups had been turned down, and he'd got a spud in his socks where his shoe rubbed where he trod over trying to walk bow-legged to look like a cowboy. 1990, Ray Salisbury, Sweet Thursday: A Novel
   His wife was darning a sock, running a needle and yarn across and back, over and under, up and down, gradually filling in the big spud-hole in her husband's sock. 2000, Christopher Nolan, The Banyan Tree: A Novel
   (Already becoming absorbed in his feet through the giant spud in his sock) Anyway, I'm er, I'm sorry. A quite unnecessary embarrassment for you. (He removes sock completely, begins rhythmic rubbing of webs) 2007, Trevor Griffiths, “Sam, Sam”, in Theatre Plays One
3. (plumbing) A type of short nut (fastener) threaded on both ends.
   With the tank resting upside down on an old towel or blanket, use a spud wrench or a large pair of channel-type pliers to loosen the spud nut. 2003, Rick Peters, Plumbing Basics, page 103
   For removing or tightening radiator spud nut. 2011, Steve Ettlinger, The Complete Illustrated Guide to Everything Sold in Hardware Stores
4. (obsolete) Anything short and thick.
   As I turned out of the wood, I heard the shrill tone of infant wailing; and as I came towards the cottage, I saw a fine flaxen-headed urchin, some six or seven years old, stamping and beating himself with his clenched little spuds of fists, in a perfect ecstasy of passion […] 1844, Richard Sainthill, An Olla Podrida: Or, Scraps, Numismatic, Antiquarian, and Literary
5. (obsolete, US, dialect) A piece of dough boiled in fat.
6. (slang, usually in the plural) A testicle.
7. (obsolete) A dagger.
8. A digging fork with three broad prongs.
9. A tool, similar to a spade, used for digging out weeds etc.
   1728, Jonathan Swift, A Pastoral Dialogue, 1910, William Browning (editor), The Poems of Jonathan Swift, Volume 2, 2004, Gutenberg eBook #13621, My love to Sheelah is more firmly fixt, / Than strongest weeds that grow these stones betwixt: / My spud these nettles from the stone can part; / No knife so keen to weed thee from my heart.
   1885, Richard Jefferies, After London: or Wild England, 2004 [1905], Gutenberg eBook #13944, Deprived of motion by the blow of the club, it can, on the other hand, be picked up without trouble and without the aid of a dog, and if not dead is despatched by a twist of the Bushman's fingers or a thrust from his spud. The spud is at once his dagger, his knife and fork, his chisel, his grub-axe, and his gouge. It is a piece of iron (rarely or never of steel, for he does not know how to harden it) about ten inches long, an inch and a half wide at the top or broadest end, where it is shaped and sharpened like a chisel, only with the edge not straight but sloping, and from thence tapering to a point at the other, the pointed part being four-sided, like a nail.
   A most respectable old Johnnie, don't you know. Doesn't do a thing nowadays but dig in the garden with a spud. 1925, P. G. Wodehouse, “Jeeves Takes Charge”, in Carry On, Jeeves, Arrow Books, published 2008, page 19
10. A barking spud; a long-handled tool for removing bark from logs.
11. (film, television) A short central rod in a lighting fixture, for attachment to the light.
    This spigot (spud) is used to support the lamp, and allows it to be turned from side to side. The spud fits into a socket in a bracket (receptable) or a C-clamp. This fixture enables you to suspend the lighting fixture from an overhead bar […] 1991, Gerald Millerson, The Technique of Lighting for Television and Film, page 299

verb

1. To dig up weeds with a spud.
   There was thistle-spudding all over the Marsh; an army of thistles, an army of spudders. 1936, Radclyffe Hall, The Sixth Beatitude
2. (drilling) To begin drilling an oil well; to drill by moving the drill bit and shaft up and down, or by raising and dropping a bit.
   A rope called the jerk line is attached to the wrist pin of the band-wheel crank, brought inside the derrick, and attached to the part of the drilling cable which extends from the crown pulley to the bull-wheel shaft by a curved metal slide called a spudding shoe. (See fig. 8.) 1911, Isaiah Bowman, United States Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 257: Well-Drilling Methods, page 46
   When a well is spudded, the drilling assembly is loosely tied to the guide wires with 1/2″ manila rope. 1999, Steve Devereux, Drilling for Oil & Gas: A Nontechnical Guide, page 86
   Spudding is the process of lifting and dropping the pile constantly until the obstruction is broken into pieces. Obviously, spudding cannot be done with lighter piles (timber or pipe piles). Concrete piles and steel H-piles are good candidates for spudding. 2008, Ruwan Rajapakse, Pile Design and Construction Rules of Thumb, page 367
   Prepayments of drilling expenses are deductible by tax-shelter investors only if the well is “spudded” within 90 days after the close of the taxable year in which the prepayment was made, and the deduction is limited to the original amount of the investment. 2008, J. K. Lasser, J.K. Lasser′s Your Income Tax: 2009, Professional, Edition, page 238
3. (roofing) To remove the roofing aggregate and most of the bituminous top coating by scraping and chipping.
4. (camping) To set up a recreational vehicle (RV) at a campsite, typically by leveling the RV and connecting it to electric, water, and/or sewer hookups.