spade

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Old English spadu, spada, from Proto-Germanic. Cognate with Old Frisian spada, Old Saxon spado, German Spaten. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sph₂-dʰ-, whence also Ancient Greek σπάθη (spathē, “blade”), Hittite išpatar (“spear”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪd

Noun

spade (plural spades)

1. 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, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     '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.'

2. A playing card marked with the symbol ♠.

   I've got only one spade in my hand.

3. (offensive, ethnic slur) A black person.
4. A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale.

Related terms

• in spades
• call a spade a spade

Translations

a garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for digging

• Afrikaans: graaf
• Albanian: lopatë (sq) f, kaci (sq) m
• Arabic: مجرفة (ar) (míjrafa) f
• Armenian: բահ (hy) (bah)
• Azeri: kürək (az)
• Bashkir: көрәк (körək)
• Belarusian: рыдлёўка (be) (rydljóŭka) f, лапата (be) (lapáta) f
• Bulgarian: лопата (bg) (lopáta) f
• Chechen: баьхьа (bäẋa), бел (bel)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鏟 (cmn), 铲 (cmn) (chǎn), 鏟子 (cmn), 铲子 (cmn) (chǎnzi), 鍬 (cmn), 锹 (cmn) (qiāo), 鐵鍬 (cmn), 铁锹 (cmn) (tiěqiāo), 鐵杴 (cmn), 铁锨 (cmn) (tiěxiān), 鍤 (cmn), 锸 (cmn) (chā)

• Chuvash: кĕреçе (kĕreśe)
• Crimean Tatar: kürek
• Czech: rýč (cs) m
• Danish: spade (da) c
• Dutch: schop f, spade f, schup f (Flemish), schep (nl) f
• Estonian: labidas (et)
• Faroese: spaki (fo) m, spaði (fo) m
• Finnish: lapio (fi)
• French: bêche (fr) f, pelle (fr) f
• Georgian: ბარი (ka) (bari)
• German: Spaten (de)
• Greek: φτυάρι (el) (ftyári) n
• Hebrew: את (he) (et)
• Hungarian: ásó (hu)
• Icelandic: skófla (is)
• Indonesian: sekop (id)
• Interlingua: pala
• Italian: pala (it), vanga (it) f
• Japanese: 鋤 (ja) (すき, suki), スペード (ja) (supēdo)
• Jèrriais: bêque f
• Karachay-Balkar: кюрек (kürek)
• Kazakh: күрек (kk) (kürek)
• Khakas: кÿрӌек (kürcek)

• Korean: 가래 (ko) (garae)
• Kumyk: кюрек (kürek)
• Kurdish: merr (ku) f, mer (ku) f
• Kyrgyz: күрөк (ky) (kürök)
• Latin: rūtrum (la) n
• Latvian: lāpsta (lv) f
• Lithuanian: kastuvas (lt) m
• Macedonian: ашов (mk) (ášov) m
• Maltese: mgħażqa f
• Maori: kāheru (mi)
• Mongolian: хүрз (mn) (hürz)
• Norwegian: spade (no) m
• Persian: بیل (fa) (bil)
• Polish: szpadel (pl) m
• Portuguese: pá (pt) f
• Romanian: lopată (ro) f
• Russian: штыковая лопата (ru) (štykovája lopáta) f, лопата (ru) (lopáta) f, заступ (ru) (zástup) m
• Scottish Gaelic: spaid f
• Serbo-Croatian: лопата (sh) f, lopata (sh) f, ашов (sh) m, ašov (sh) m
• Shor: кÿрек (kürek), кÿрчек (kürçek)
• Slovak: rýľ (sk) m
• Slovene: lopata (sl) f
• Southern Altai: кӱрек (kürek)
• Spanish: pala (es) f, azada (es) f
• Swedish: spade (sv) c
• Tajik: бел (tg) (bel)
• Talysh:

  Asalemi: خلیک (xəlik)

• Tatar: көрәк (tt) (köräk)
• Turkish: kürek (tr), bel (tr)
• Turkmen: bel (tk)
• Ukrainian: лопата (uk) (lopáta) f
• Uzbek: kurak (uz), belkurak (uz), bel (uz)
• Vietnamese: xẻng (vi), xuồng (vi)
• Yakut: күрдьэх (kürcex)

one of the black suits in a deck of cards

• Albanian: maç m
• Arabic: البستوني (al-bastūni) m
• Armenian: (formal) ագռավ (hy) (agṙav), (informal) ղառ (hy) (łar)
• Bulgarian: пика (bg) (pika) f
• Chinese: (Hong Kong) 揆扇 (kuí shàn)
• Danish: spar (da) c
• Dutch: schoppen pl, schuppen pl (Flemish)
• Estonian: poti (et), pada (et)
• Faroese: spaðari (fo) m, spaðar (fo) m
• Finnish: pata (fi)
• French: pique (fr) f
• Georgian: ყვავი (ka) (qvavi)
• German: Pik (de)
• Greek: μπαστούνι (el) (bastouni) n
• Hungarian: pikk (hu)
• Icelandic: spaði (is) m
• Interlingua: spada

• Italian: picche (it)
• Japanese: スペード (ja) (supēdo)
• Jèrriais: picl'ye f
• Macedonian: пик (mk) (pik) m, лист (mk) (list) m
• Maltese: spadi
• Norwegian: spar (no) m
• Polish: pik (pl) m
• Portuguese: espada (pt) f
• Romanian: pică f
• Russian: пика (ru) (píka) f
• Scottish Gaelic: spaid (gd) f
• Spanish: pica (es) f
• Swahili: shupaza (sw)
• Swedish: spader (sv) c
• Telugu: ఇస్పేటు (ispaeTu)
• Turkish: maça (tr)

a black person

• Bulgarian: чернилка
• Hungarian: negró (hu), (very offensive) feka (hu)
• Icelandic: surtur (is) m, negri (is) m, niggari (is) m, svertingjahundur (is) m, blámaður (is) m

• Interlingua: negro
• Portuguese: crioulo (pt) m
• Romanian: cioroi m
• Spanish: (offensive) negro (es), mulato (es) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Mandarin: 鍬, 锹 (qiāo), 黑桃 (hēi táo)
• Interlingua: picca

• Korean: 삽 (sap)
• Spanish: pala f

Verb

spade (third-person singular simple present spades, present participle spading, simple past and past participle spaded)

1. To turn over soil with a spade to loosen the ground for planting.
2. (videogaming) To collect and statistically analyze data, for the purpose of determining the underlying random number generator structure or numeric formula.

Anagrams

• adeps

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Finnish

Noun

spade

1. (military slang) field cook

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Italian

Noun

spade f

1. Plural form of spada

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Norwegian

Noun

spade m

1. spade (tool)

Inflection

    Inflection of spade

	indefinite singular	definite singular	indefinite plural	definite plural
Bokmål m	spade	spaden	spader	spadene
Nynorsk m	spade	spaden	spadar	spadane

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Swedish

Noun

spade c

1. a spade (tool)

Declension

Declension of spade

	singular		plural
Common	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	spade	spaden	spadar	spadarna
genitive	spades	spadens	spadars	spadarnas

Related terms

• spada
• spader
• spadformad
• spadhandtag
• spadharv
• spadtag
• spadvända
• spadvändning

References

• spade in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)