spade
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English spade, from Old English spada, spade, spadu (“spade”), from Proto-Germanic *spadǭ, *spadô, *spadō (“spade”). Cognate with Dutch spade, Old Frisian spada, Old Saxon spado, German Spaten, Hunsrik Spaad. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sph₂-dʰ-, whence also Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē, “blade”), Hittite 𒅖𒉺𒀀𒋻 (išpatar, “spear”), Persian سپار (sopâr, “plow”), Northern Luri ئەسپار (aspār, “digging”) and Central Kurdish ئەسپەر (esper), ئەسپەرە (espere, “cross-piece on shaft of spade to take pressure of foot”).[1] Distant doublet of spatha, spathe, and épée.
Noun
spade (plural spades)
- A garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for digging. Not to be confused with a shovel which is used for moving earth or other materials.
- [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:
- 'Make your mind easy,' Ratsey said; 'I have dug too often in this graveyard for any to wonder if they see me with a spade.'
- 2021 October 6, Paul Stephen, “Network News: Labour: build HS2 and NPR and end "paper promises"”, in RAIL, number 941, page 25:
- "[...] And not a single spade has gone in the ground - not a single mile of track built."
- A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale.
Derived terms
- bucket and spade
- call a spade a bloody shovel
- call a spade a fucking shovel
- call a spade a shovel
- call a spade a spade
- call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel
- call a spade a spade, not a big spoon
- peat spade
- spade foot
- spadefoot
- spade-foot
- spade fork
- spadeful
- spade-handed
- spadelike
- spade-man
- spade man
- spade mashie
- spade money
- spadework
- spadeworker
- spade-worker
- turf spade
Descendants
Translations
garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for digging
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Verb
spade (third-person singular simple present spades, present participle spading, simple past and past participle spaded)
- To turn over soil with a spade to loosen the ground for planting.
Derived terms
References
Etymology 2
Probably from Italian spade, plural of spada (“the ace of spades”, literally “sword, spade”), from earlier *spata, from Latin spatha, from Ancient Greek σπᾰ́θη (spáthē). Cognate with Etymology 1. So called for the shape, though what the shape was exactly meant to represent has been debated.[1]
Noun
spade (plural spades)
- (card games) A playing card marked with the symbol ♠.
- I've got only one spade in my hand.
- (offensive, ethnic slur) A black person.
- 1929, Wallace Thurman, The Blacker the Berry, New York: Collier Books, published 1970, →ISBN, page 161:
- And as for a divorce, I know plenty spades right here in Harlem get married any time they want to.
- 1968, Joan Didion, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:
- Example: Max was in a hospital in New York and "the night nurse was a groovy spade, and in the afternoon for therapy there was a chick from Israel who was interesting, but there was nothing much to do in the morning, so I left".
- 1968, Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Bantam, published 1997, →ISBN, page 9:
- It had even gotten to the point that Negroes were no longer in the hip scene, not even as totem figures. It was unbelievable. Spades, the very soul figures of Hip, of jazz, of the hip vocabulary itself, man and like dig and baby and scarf and split and later and so fine, of civil rights and graduating from Reed College and living on North Beach, down Mason, and balling spade cats—all that good elaborate petting and patting and pouring soul all over the spades—all over, finished, incredibly.
Derived terms
Translations
one of the black suits in a deck of cards
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black person
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
References
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “spade (n.2)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Anagrams
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