HIGHLY OFFENSIVE slang term for a black person. Professional noder on closed course. Don't say this at home, kids.

To Iceberg Slim and his contemporaries, this was a jivespeak term for an African-American. It wasn't derogatory to be called a spade by a fellow black man, but to hear it from the Man carried a negative vibe.

The spade has been used throughout history to represent agriculture, forceful progress, and combative prowess. This can be traced all the way back to Sumeria, where the spade or marru was traditionally noted as the accoutrement of the chief god Marduk, possibly in the form of a triangular-headed spear. It has been used in the standard deck of playing cards, where the court of each suit represents influential figures from throughout history, and the court of spades represents those whose influence was made through war, justice, and otherwise rash actions, specifically, the soldiering class. Today, due to the lack of use of melee weaponry in both practice and symbolism, the spade mostly represents agriculture and gardening.

Syn: Attractive female

A code word originating from certain High Schools in and around Bergen, Norway during the early nineties. Coined by a group of people compelled to assess the qualities of female students, particularly those standing right next to them at any given time.

Once incorporated into the vocabulary this word has proved to be difficult to stop using. As a consequence normal people have no idea what these people are talking about, which in real life isn't necessarily a good thing.

Spade (?), n. [Cf. Spay, n.]

1. Zool.

A hart or stag three years old.

[Written also spaid, spayade.]

2. [Cf. L. spado.]

A castrated man or beast.

 

© Webster 1913.


Spade, n. [AS. spaed; spada; akin to D. spade, G. spaten, Icel. spa&edh;i, Dan. & Sw. spade, L. spatha a spatula, a broad two-edged sword, a spathe, Gr. spa`qh. Cf. Epaulet, Spade at cards, Spathe, Spatula.]

1.

An implement for digging or cutting the ground, consisting usually of an oblong and nearly rectangular blade of iron, with a handle like that of a shovel.

"With spade and pickax armed."

Milton.

2. [Sp. espada, literally, a sword; -- so caused because these cards among the Spanish bear the figure of a sword. Sp. espada is fr. L. spatha, Gr. spa`qh. See the Etymology above.]

One of that suit of cards each of which bears one or more figures resembling a spade.

"Let spades be trumps!" she said. Pope.

3.

A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale.

Spade bayonet, a bayonet with a broad blade which may be used digging; -- called also trowel bayonet. -- Spade handle Mach., the forked end of a connecting rod in which a pin is held at both ends. See Illust. of Knuckle joint, under Knuckle.

 

© Webster 1913.


Spade (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spaded; p. pr. & vb. n. Spading.]

To dig with a spade; to pare off the sward of, as land, with a spade.

 

© Webster 1913.

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