Spade (pronounced speyd)
(1) A garden or farming tool for digging, having an iron
blade adapted for pressing into the ground with the foot and a long handle
commonly with a grip or crosspiece at the top, and with the blade usually
narrower and flatter than that of a shovel.
(2) Some implement, piece, or part resembling this.
(3) A heavy metallic projection on the bottom of a gun
trail, designed to dig into the earth to restrict backward movement of the
carriage during recoil.
(4) To dig, cut, or remove with a spade.
(5) In four-suit card-games, , a black figure shaped like
an inverted heart and with a short stem at the cusp opposite the point; a card
of the suit bearing such figures.
(6) In slang, a disparaging and offensive term for a
person with black skin (based on the spade in packs of cards) (obsolete).
(7) In nautical use, a type of oar blade that is
comparatively broad and short (as opposed to a spoon).
(8) A cutting tool for stripping the blubber from a whale
or skin from a carcass.
(9) As “in spades”, a term synonymous with the idiomatic “laying
it on with a trowel” to indicate something done to excess or in an emphatic way.
(10) As “to call a spade a spade”, to be candid; to speak
plainly without resort to euphemisms.
(11) As “to do the spadework” to be thorough in
preparation.
(12) A hart or stag three years old (rare).
(13) A castrated man or animal (archaic).
Pre-900: From the Middle English noun spade, from the Old English spada, spade & spadu. It was cognate with the the Proto-Germanic spadǭ, spadô & spadō, the Dutch spade, the Old Frisian spada, the Old Saxon spado, the Old High German spato, the German Spaten, the Old Norse spathi (spade), the Hunsrik Spaad and the Ancient Greek spáthē (blade; broad, flat piece of wood). The ultimate source was the primitive Indo-European spe-dh-, from which the Ancient Greek gained σπάθη (spáthē) (blade), Hittite išpatar (spear), Persian سپار (sopār) (plow), Northern Luri ئەسپار (aspār) (diging) and Central Kurdish ئەسپەر (esper) & ئەسپەرە (espere) (cross-piece on shaft of spade to take pressure of foot). More recent descendants include the Scottish Gaelic spaid and the Fiji Hindi sipi. Sometimes confused with the shovel, derived forms include the adjective spadelike, the nouns spader, spadework & spadeful and the verbs spaded & spading.
Although a proliferation of modern hybrid designs for home gardeners has a little blurred the distinction, traditionally, a spade differs from a two-handed shovel mostly in the form and thickness of the blade. The phase “to call a spade a spade" (using blunt language, call things by right names and avoid euphemisms) dates from the 1540s and was a translation of a Greek proverb (which was known to the Greek satirist and rhetorician Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανός ό Σαμοσατεύς; circa 125-Circa 185) ten skaphen skaphen legein (to call a bowl a bowl) but Dutch Catholic theologian Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (Erasmus of Rotterdam; 1466–1536) mis-translated, confusing the Greek skaphe (trough, bowl) for a derivative of the stem of skaptein (to dig) and the mistake has forever stuck, possibly because, at least in English, it better conveys the meaning.
The phrase “in spades” (a suggestion of abundance) appeared first as
recently as 1929 in a short story by US journalist and author Damon Runyon (1880-1946),
a reference to the desirably of having many of the suit in bridge, spades the
highest-ranking suit. A similar phrase
is that reported by the poet Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) and attributed to Benjamin
Disraeli (1804–1881; UK prime- minister 1868 &
1874-1880) who, when discussing the techniques he adopted during his audiences
with Queen Victoria (1819–1901; Queen of the UK 1837-1901), advised “everyone
likes flattery and when you come to royalty, you should lay it on with a trowel”.
Dating from the 1520s, the spatula, now familiar as a kitchen tool used to scrape the contents of bowls, is derived from the early fifteenth century medical instrument, from the Latin spatula (broad piece), diminutive of spatha (broad, flat tool or weapon) from the Ancient Greek spathe (broad flat blade (used by weavers); the erroneous form spattular is attested from circa 1600.
The cake spade was a curious alternative to the cake (or pie) server, the latter a utensil styled to conform to the size and shape of the typical domestic slice of cake or pie. Where the cake spade differed was in the use of a regular or irregular trapezoid shape which, although it would make it difficult to maneuver something cut in the traditional, elongated triangle used with circular cakes or pies, offered advantages in stability for anything served is a squarer form including stuff like lasagna. Horses for courses.
Splayd (pronounced splade)
An eating utensil combining the functions of spoon, knife
and fork.
1943: The splayd was created by William McArthur of Sydney,
Australia with manufacturing licensed to several manufacturers, the best known
of which was Viners of Sheffield. Although several variations of the spork (a
utensil combining the functionality of spoon and fork) already existed, the
splayd’s innovation was the refinement of two outer fork tines each having a hard,
flat edge, suitable for cutting through soft food and they tended to have a geometric
rather than a rounded bowl, with two longitudinal folds in the metal. Mrs McArthur used and sold
splayds in her Martha Washington Café in Sydney between 1943-1967 and in 1960 sold
the manufacturing rights to the Stokes company which instituted some minor
changes to the design, making them more easily mass-produced.
Among some of the middle class seeking to add a layer of something to their dinner parties, splades were often seen and during its heyday of popularity during the 1950s and 1960s, they were a popular wedding gift. The design also served a useful purpose in aged care and medical rehabilitation, recommended for those with feeding difficulties following or during treatment of the arm. A range was manufactured with the Selectagrip system which featured customizable handles to assist people who had difficulties gripping or manipulating standard utensils.
Lindsay Lohan's Royal Routine in spades in The Parent Trap (1998).
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