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Origin and history of spade

spade(n.1)

"tool for digging having a thick blade for pressing into the ground," Old English spadu "spade," from Proto-Germanic *spadan (source also of Old Frisian spada "a spade," Middle Dutch spade "a sword," Old Saxon spado, Middle Low German spade, German Spaten).

This is reconstructed to be from PIE *spe-dh- (source also of Greek spathē "wooden blade, paddle"), which as a suffixed form has been grouped under a root *speh-, "with several extensions, denoting quite different implements" (Boutkan) but basically indicating "long, flat piece of wood" (source also of Old English spon "chip of wood, splinter," Old Norse spann "shingle, chip;" see spoon (n.)).

"A spade differs from a two-handed shovel chiefly in the form and thickness of the blade" [Century Dictionary].

To call a spade a spade "use blunt language, call things by right names even if homely or coarse" (1540s) translates a Greek proverb (known to Lucian), ten skaphen skaphen legein "to call a bowl a bowl," but Erasmus mistook Greek skaphē "trough, bowl" for a derivative of the stem of skaptein "to dig," and the mistake has stuck [see OED].

Various unnecessary conjectures have been made as to the supposed occult origin of this phrase ; but it means what it says—to call a simple thing by its simple name, without circumlocution or affected elegance. [Century Dictionary, 1895]

spade(n.2)

black figure on playing cards, 1590s, probably from Italian spade, plural of spada "the ace of spades," literally "sword, spade," from Latin spatha "broad, flat weapon or tool," from Greek spathe "broad blade" (see spade (n.1)). So called for the shape, though what the shape was exactly meant to represent has been debated.

The phrase in spades "in abundance" is recorded by 1929 (Damon Runyon), probably from bridge, where spades are the highest-ranking suit.

The invitations to the musicale came sliding in by pairs and threes and spade flushes. ["O. Henry," "Cabbages & Kings," 1904]

The derogatory meaning "black person" is 1928, from the color of the playing card symbol.

also from 1590s

Entries linking to spade

spoon(n.)

Middle English spon, from Old English spon "chip, sliver, shaving, splinter of wood" (a sense now obsolete), from Proto-Germanic *spe-nu- (source also of Old Norse spann, sponn "chip, splinter," Swedish spån "a wooden spoon," Old Frisian spon, Middle Dutch spaen, Dutch spaan, Old High German span, German Span "chip, splinter"), formerly said to be from PIE *spe- (2) "long, flat piece of wood" (source also of Greek spathe "spade," also possibly Greek sphēn "wedge," but see spheno-).

In Middle English also "a roofing-shingle." As the word for a type of eating utensil consisting of a bowl or concave part and a handle, c. 1300 in English (in Old English such a thing might be a metesticca). This sense is supposed to be from Old Norse sponn, which meant "spoon" as well as "chip, tile." The development of the eating utensil sense is specific to Middle English and Scandinavian, though Middle Low German spon also meant "wooden spatula."

To be born with a silver spoon in one's mouth "in affluence" is from at least 1719 (Goldsmith, 1765, has: "one man is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and another with a wooden ladle").

Bihoueth hire a ful long spoon That shal ete with a feend. [Chaucer, c. 1395]

epaulet(n.)

also epaulette, "shoulder ornament on a uniform," 1783, from French épaulette "an epaulet" (16c.), diminutive of épaule "shoulder," from Old French espaule (12c.), from Latin spatula "flat piece of wood, splint," in Medieval Latin "shoulder blade," diminutive of spatha "broad wooden instrument, broad sword," from Greek spathē "a broad flat sword" (see spade (n.1)).