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"hot potato"

01-04-2009 8:38pm

#1

WooPeeA

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Where that came from?

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#2 02-04-2009 2:55am

The Raven.

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Dictionary.com

hot potato

A problem so controversial and sensitive that it is risky to deal with. For example, Gun control is a political hot potato. This term, dating from the mid-1800s, alludes to the only slightly older expression drop like a hot potato, meaning "to abandon something or someone quickly" (lest one be burned). The idiom alludes to the fact that cooked potatoes retain considerable heat because they contain a lot of water.

I don't know where the term originated, but this definition seems as good as any. That is how I have always understood it anyway.

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