Call a spade a spade

Definition

"Call a spade a spade" or "call a spade a shovel" are both forms of the figurative expression which state that the speaker should call, or has called, a noun by its most suitable name without any reservation to the strained formalities that may result. The implication is telling the truth regarding the nature of the thing in question, speaking frankly and directly about it,

Usage

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable in 1913,

Robert Burton used the idiom in his The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) to describe his ostensibly plain writing style, claiming, "I call a spade a spade" (1.17.23). The phrase also appeared in Joseph Devlin's book How to Speak and Write Correctly (1910) to satirize 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, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Browning, Jonathan Swift, and W. Somerset Maugham.

The phrase predates the use of the word "spade" as an ethnic slur against African Americans (and others of African descent),

The equivalent expression in Spanish-speaking countries is "a llamar al pan pan, y al vino vino", which translates as "to call the bread bread, and to call the wine wine". Italian has a similar expression to the Spanish "dire pane al pane e vino al vino", literally "to say bread to the bread and wine to the wine". The equivalent in French-speaking countries is "appeler un chat, un chat", which translates as "to call a cat a cat". In Portuguese-speaking countries, the equivalent is "chamar os bois pelos nomes", literally, "to call oxen by their names" (a double-entendre; an "ox" can also refer to a cornuted man, a cuckold).

History

The ultimate source of this idiom is a phrase in Plutarch's Apophthegmata Laconica: τὴν σκάφην σκάφην λέγοντας (tēn skaphēn skaphēn legontas). The word σκαφη (skaphe) means "basin or trough". Lucian De Hist. Conscr. (41) has τὰ σύκα σύκα, τὴν σκάφην δὲ σκάφην ὀνομάσων (ta suka suka, tēn skaphēn de skaphēn onomasōn), "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. Lakshmi Gandhi speculates that the introduction of the word "shovel" may have been a conscious, dramatic choice rather than a mistranslation.

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

References

References

1. Martin, Gary. (11 December 2023). "'Call a spade a spade' - the meaning and origin of this phrase".
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9. Wilde, Oscar. (10 Dec 2015). "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Wisehouse Classics.
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12. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "''Essays'': First Series [1841]—Prudence".
13. Browning, Robert. (1875). "Aristophanes' Apology: Including a Transcript from Euripides Being The Last Adventure of Balaustion, Numéro 820". Smith, Elder, & Co..
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17. . (24 July 2020). ["Appeler un chat un chat"](https://www.lawlessfrench.com/expressions/appeler-un-chat-un-chat/).
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19. Michaelis, Henriette. (1893). "A New Dictionary of the Portuguese and English Languages". F. A. Brockhaus.
20. τῶν δὲ περὶ Λασθένην τὸν Ὀλύνθιον ἐγκαλούντων καὶ ἀγανακτούντων, ὅτι προδότας αὐτοὺς ἔνιοι τῶν περὶ τὸν Φίλιππον ἀποκαλοῦσι, σκαιοὺς ἔφη φύσει καὶ ἀγροίκους εἶναι Μακεδόνας καὶ τὴν σκάφην σκάφην λέγοντας., "When the men associated with Lasthenes, the Olynthian, complained with indignation because some of Philip's associates called them traitors, he said that the Macedonians are by nature a rough and rustic people who call a spade a spade.", [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0191%3Achapter%3D26%3Asection%3D15 Plutarch, ''Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata'', 26.15]
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23. (23 Sep 2013). "Code Switch: Is It Racist To 'Call A Spade A Spade'?". NPR.
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25. [http://www.rotterdam.nl/desiderius_erasmus_roterodamus__erasmus_van_rotterdam ''desiderius erasmus roterodamus: erasmus van rotterdam'', Rotterdam.nl] {{webarchive. link. (7 Aug 2016)