spade
English
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 [script needed] (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. Meade Falkner, chapter 4, in Moonfleet, London, Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934:
- '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, not a big spoon
- call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel
- 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
Translations
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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
- Dehkhoda dictionary: سپار.
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
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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.
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Alternative forms
- spaid
- spayade
Noun
spade (plural spades)
- (Can we verify(+) this sense?) A hart or stag three years old.
- (Can we verify(+) this sense?) A castrated man or animal.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “spade”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
References
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “spade (n.2)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈspaːdə/
Audio (file)
Alternative forms
Etymology 1
From Middle Dutch spade, from Old Dutch *spado, from Proto-Germanic *spadô.
Etymology 2
From Middle Dutch spâde, from Old Dutch *spādi, from Proto-Germanic *spēdiz (“late”).
Inflection
Inflection of spade | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
uninflected | spade | |||
inflected | spade | |||
comparative | spader | |||
positive | comparative | superlative | ||
predicative/adverbial | spade | spader | het spaadst het spaadste | |
indefinite | m./f. sing. | spade | spadere | spaadste |
n. sing. | spade | spader | spaadste | |
plural | spade | spadere | spaadste | |
definite | spade | spadere | spaadste | |
partitive | spades | spaders | — |
Synonyms
References
Finnish
Etymology
Possibly from pata (“pot”) (perhaps through English spade, since spades (the card suit) are also called pata in Finnish).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈspɑde/, [ˈs̠pɑ̝de̞]
- Rhymes: -ɑde
- Syllabification(key): spa‧de
Declension
Inflection of spade (Kotus type 8/nalle, no gradation) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
nominative | spade | spadet | ||
genitive | spaden | spadejen | ||
partitive | spadea | spadeja | ||
illative | spadeen | spadeihin | ||
singular | plural | |||
nominative | spade | spadet | ||
accusative | nom. | spade | spadet | |
gen. | spaden | |||
genitive | spaden | spadejen spadeinrare | ||
partitive | spadea | spadeja | ||
inessive | spadessa | spadeissa | ||
elative | spadesta | spadeista | ||
illative | spadeen | spadeihin | ||
adessive | spadella | spadeilla | ||
ablative | spadelta | spadeilta | ||
allative | spadelle | spadeille | ||
essive | spadena | spadeina | ||
translative | spadeksi | spadeiksi | ||
abessive | spadetta | spadeitta | ||
instructive | — | spadein | ||
comitative | See the possessive forms below. |
Possessive forms of spade (Kotus type 8/nalle, no gradation) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Friulian
Etymology
From Latin spatha (“a type of sword”), from Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē, “broad blade”).
Italian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈspa.de/
- Rhymes: -ade
- Hyphenation: spà‧de
Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Old English spadu.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈspaːd(ə)/
References
- “spāde, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology
From Middle Low German spade and Old Norse spaði, jarnspaði.
Noun
spade m (definite singular spaden, indefinite plural spader, definite plural spadene)
- spade (a garden tool)
- kalle en spade for en spade - call a spade a spade
- spadeful
- tre spader jord - three spadefuls of earth
References
- “spade” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology
From Old Norse spaði, jarnspaði, from Middle Low German spade.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /²spɑːə/, /²spɑːdə/
Noun
spade m (definite singular spaden, indefinite plural spadar, definite plural spadane)
- spade, shovel (a garden tool)
- kalle ein spade for ein spade - call a spade a spade
- spadeful
- ein spade sand - a spadeful of sand
Derived terms
- steikespade
Verb
spade (present tense spader, past tense spadde, past participle spadd or spadt, present participle spadande, imperative spad)
- Alternative form of spa
References
- “spade” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Swedish
Etymology
From Old Norse spaði, from Middle Low German spade, from Proto-Germanic *spadō, from Proto-Indo-European *sph₂-dʰ-.
Noun
spade c
Declension
Declension of spade | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | spade | spaden | spadar | spadarna |
Genitive | spades | spadens | spadars | spadarnas |