Call a spade a spade

To "call a spade a spade" is a figurative expression which refers to calling something "as it is",, that is, by its right or proper name, without "beating about the bush"—being outspoken about it, truthfully, frankly, and directly, even to the point of being blunt or rude, and even if the subject is considered coarse, impolite, or unpleasant. The idiom originates in the classical Greek of Plutarch's Apophthegmata Laconica, and was introduced into the English language in 1542 in Nicolas Udall's translation of the Apophthegmes, where Erasmus had seemingly replaced Plutarch's images of "trough" and "fig" with the more familiar "spade." The idiom has appeared in many literary and popular works, including those of Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, and W. Somerset Maugham.

Full definition

To call a spade a spade or call a spade a shovel is a figurative expression which refers to explicitly calling something as it is, by its right name. The implication is that ones tells the truth about the nature of the thing, speaking frankly and directly about it, including subjects, even if coarse, or considered impolite or unpleasant. Brewer defined it in 1913 as being "outspoken, blunt, even to the point of rudeness", adding that it implies ones calling "things by their proper names without any 'beating about the bush'".

History

The ultimate source of this idiom is a phrase in classical Greek. Plutarch's Apophthegmata Laconica (178B) has την σκαφην σκαφην λεγοντας (ten skaphen skaphen legontas). The word σκαφη (skaphe) means "basin, or trough." Lucian De Hist. Conscr. (41) has τα συκα συκα, την σκαφην δε σκαφην ονομασων (ta suka suka, ten skaphen de skaphen onomason), "calling a fig a fig, and a trough a trough".

Erasmus translated Plutarch's σκαφην (skaphe), as if from σπάθη (spáthe), as ligo "shovel" in his Apophthegmatum opus. It is speculated that the introduction of the word "shovel" may have been a conscious, dramatic choice rather than a mis-translation.

The phrase was introduced to English in 1542 in Nicolas Udall's translation of Erasmus' work, Apophthegmes, that is to saie, prompte saiynges. First gathered by Erasmus, as follows:

Philippus aunswered, that the Macedonians wer feloes of no fyne witte in their termes but altogether grosse, clubbyshe, and rusticall, as they whiche had not the witte to calle a spade by any other name then a spade.

In the expression, the word spade refers to the instrument used to move earth, a very common tool. The same word was used in England, Denmark, and in the Netherlands, Erasmus' country of origin.

Usage

Brewer includes the expression in his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable in 1913, providing a definition largely consistent with contemporary English usage in the early 21st century. The Oxford English Dictionary records a forceful, obscene variant, "to call a spade a bloody shovel", attested since 1919.

The phrase appeared in Joseph Devlin's book How to Speak and Write Correctly (1910), where he satirized speakers who chose their words to show superiority: "For instance, you may not want to call a spade a spade. You may prefer to call it a spatulous device for abrading the surface of the soil. Better, however, to stick to the old familiar, simple name that your grandfather called it."

Oscar Wilde uses the phrase in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), when the character Lord Henry Wotton remarks: "It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for." Wilde uses it again in The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Other authors who have used it in their works include Charles Dickens and W. Somerset Maugham.

As perceived slur

The phrase predates the use of the word "spade" as an ethnic slur against African Americans, which was not recorded until 1928; however, in contemporary U.S. society, the idiom is often avoided due to potential confusion with the slur.

See also

• Doublethink (antonym)
• Duck test