Sunday Fluff: Peel or Pare a potato?

my dad pared potatoes using a knife. I peel potatoes using a vegetable peeler.

I would say "peel" but grew up with British parents who said "pare". 

I've never heard of "paring" a potato.

We say peel but generally use a paring knife.

Grew up using a paring knife to peel the potatoes. Now I use a peeler but have paring knives for other small cutting chores in kitchen.

I have peeled thousands of pounds of potatoes - perhaps only slightly exaggerated. My father didn't recognize it as dinner if there weren't potatoes and my mother HATED peeling potatoes. So at an extremely young age - I was handed a knife. I disagree vehemently that using a knife involves more waste - if you do it enough, you can be an expert and will peel faster and more efficient and with little waste with a knife. But it was never paring.

Now when I have potatoes I almost always use red skin or other thin skinned varietals than don't need peeling. But once in a while I'll bust out my peeling expertise to my kids' shock and awe.

I always thought that to pare meant to make smaller, and to peel was to take the skin off. Of course taking the skin off makes it smaller, but using my definition, you can pare a potato without taking the skin off.

I always peel my potatoes with a paring knife... its just how i roll