spade
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /speɪd/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file)
- (Scotland) IPA(key): /sped/
- Rhymes: -eɪd
- Homophone: spayed (except Scotland)
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
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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
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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.
Etymology 3
Compare spay, noun, and spado.
Alternative forms
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.
Anagrams
Dutch
Pronunciation
Alternative forms
Etymology 1
From Middle Dutch spade, from Old Dutch *spado, from Proto-Germanic *spadô.
Noun
spade m (plural spaden or spades)
Etymology 2
From Middle Dutch spâde, from Old Dutch *spādi, from Proto-Germanic *spēdiz (“late”).
Adjective
spade (comparative spader, superlative spaadst)
Declension
Declension 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
Finnish
Etymology
Possibly from pata (“pot”) (perhaps through English spade, since spades (the card suit) are also called pata in Finnish).
Pronunciation
Noun
spade
- (military slang) field cook
- Synonym: sotilaskeittäjä
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 spadein rare | |
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. |
Friulian
Etymology
From Latin spatha (“a type of sword”), from Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē, “broad blade”).
Noun
spade f (plural spadis)
Italian
Pronunciation
Noun
spade f
Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Old English spadu.
Pronunciation
Noun
spade (plural spades)
Descendants
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
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Old Norse spaði, jarnspaði, from Middle Low German spade.
Pronunciation
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
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 |
Related terms
References
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/eɪd
- Rhymes:English/eɪd/1 syllable
- English terms with homophones
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English doublets
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- English terms borrowed from Italian
- English terms derived from Italian
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- en:Card games
- English terms with usage examples
- English offensive terms
- English ethnic slurs
- en:Horticulture
- en:Tools
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio links
- Dutch terms inherited from Middle Dutch
- Dutch terms derived from Middle Dutch
- Dutch terms inherited from Old Dutch
- Dutch terms derived from Old Dutch
- Dutch terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Dutch terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch masculine nouns
- Dutch adjectives
- Dutch terms with archaic senses
- Finnish 2-syllable words
- Finnish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Finnish/ɑde
- Rhymes:Finnish/ɑde/2 syllables
- Finnish lemmas
- Finnish nouns
- Finnish military slang
- Finnish nalle-type nominals
- Friulian terms inherited from Latin
- Friulian terms derived from Latin
- Friulian terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Friulian lemmas
- Friulian nouns
- Friulian feminine nouns
- Italian 2-syllable words
- Italian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Italian/ade
- Rhymes:Italian/ade/2 syllables
- Italian non-lemma forms
- Italian noun forms
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- enm:Tools
- Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from Middle Low German
- Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from Old Norse
- Norwegian Bokmål lemmas
- Norwegian Bokmål nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål masculine nouns
- nb:Tools
- Norwegian Nynorsk terms derived from Old Norse
- Norwegian Nynorsk terms derived from Middle Low German
- Norwegian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Norwegian Nynorsk lemmas
- Norwegian Nynorsk nouns
- Norwegian Nynorsk masculine nouns
- Norwegian Nynorsk verbs
- nn:Tools
- Swedish terms derived from Old Norse
- Swedish terms derived from Middle Low German
- Swedish terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Swedish terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish nouns
- Swedish common-gender nouns