Sometimes peasants in Belarus were called "potato" or "bulba'sz" in their dialect. Some intellectuals of peasant origin from Belarus call so themselves.
I've never heard anybody calling anyone "potato" (ziemniak, kartofel - the second one considered incorrect).
In Wielkopolska there is a dialect word "pyra", which means quite the same as "potato". Sometimes people from Wielkopolska are called by other people "pyra", or "pyry". It's not derogatory, but not quite nice as well.
Oh, and some time ago there was this fus when a German paper called Kaczynski twins "kartofle" ("potatos"), so maybe that's when it's started?
I live on the South of Poland and I have many times have heard when people calling the others ,potato' and especially children. Just it's in some sense nickname.
I think there's no english equivalent of "pyra", but I'm not sure. Pyra means just "potato".
It's something like british english "bloke", and general english (yeap, I'm making up terms now :D) "guy" - a guy is a bloke, and a bloke is a guy.
Rolnik is not derogatory, but if you would like to offend somebody you can call him "wieśniak". It's offensive, so if you call some that be sure he's no match for you, otherwise he will beat the crap out of you (I would). "Wieśniak" to some extend means "rolnik", but it is used to describe stupid people, or people with no manners. To be frank when you're polish you don't think much about the meaning of words in which you offend other people :)
Why are some Polish people called 'potatoes' by other Polish people?
Maybe burak? For example 'ty buraku', lol, and that's for sure derogatory. What about the subject... I've never seen people calling somebody a potato :)
Calling a person 'kartofel' is an equivalent of calling him a redneck. It is rude and is considered an insult. Stronger version of the insult is burak (beetroot).
Danes often refer in a jocose vein to fellow countrymen, especially from Jutland, as "kartoffeldanske", if they are slightly less sophisticated than folk from Copenhagen, for instance.
In Danish, the equivalent would be more 'country bumpkin' or 'rube' in English (not literally "potato Dane", which sounds patently ridiculous.) I believe the Polish expression 'przybysz' exists, but I'm not certain.
Both "ziemniak" and "burak" do function in Polish slang as derogatory terms and they do so regardless of weather any posters in this thread have any direct experience with the usage or not. Slownik Jezyka Polskiego (The Polish Language Dictionary) even lists "burak" (in its secondary and tertiary meanings) as:
2. pogard. «o osobie pochodzącej ze wsi» 3. pogard. «o osobie zachowującej się prostacko»
2. derogatory about a village/country person 3. derogatory about a person with poor manners
"Burak" is not someone frome a village. But it is derogatory. The meaning changes with region, I guess. In Bielsko "buraki" are driving Volskwagen Golf with dark windows and listen to the loud music while in traffic."What a burak!"
I take it then you're from Gemany too. In the Fassbinder film from the later 60's 'Ali oder Angst frisst die Seele auf' (Ali or Fear Eats the Soul), several characters refer to the protagonist by the invective 'Scheissturke' and 'Kuemmeltuerke'.
Didn't realize it was still in use as late as the 90's. Interesting.
do you mean: 'you potato?" ;) - "Ty ziemniaku?" ;0 I've never heard it. "burak" is somebody who is an oaf with a red face. And it is definately degratory.
