{"id":791,"date":"2017-10-09T00:01:31","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T06:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/?p=791"},"modified":"2020-02-15T20:37:34","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T03:37:34","slug":"calling-a-spade-a-shovel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/2017\/10\/09\/calling-a-spade-a-shovel\/","title":{"rendered":"Calling a Spade a Shovel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The art of digging is dying. No, I\u2019m not looking for a gravedigging pun here. (Actually, I did look, but couldn\u2019t find one.) Long considered men\u2019s work, most men could handle a spade and a shovel quite well even if they didn\u2019t labour for a living, because so many families grew their own vegetables. Many women would have become expert diggers during the Second World War, when most of the men were away fighting.<\/p>\n

But since the war, there\u2019s been a decline in the need to be handy with a shovel and\u2014based on personal observation\u2014a consequent decline in shovel handiness.<\/p>\n

Using a Spade to Shovel<\/h1>\n

One particularly sad sight I see is people using spades to do shovelling work, and vice versa. It\u2019s hard work just watching them! Try eating peas with your knife (without using honey!)\u2014it\u2019s a very similar concept. While calling<\/em> a spade a spade is all well and good, using<\/em> a spade as a spade is a very good habit indeed.<\/p>\n

\"\"Say I were to dig a hole\u2014maybe with grave-like dimensions: I would use a spade to cut the dirt and remove the clod, and I would use a shovel to scoop up the loose material and throw it out of the hole.<\/p>\n

One reason that I think the phrase \u201cto call a spade a spade\u201d resonates with us is that there is confusion over what is a spade and what is a shovel. Until I wrote this article, it was simple for me; spades cut and move, and shovels scoop. Even dictionaries bear this simplistic view out: Webster\u2019s describes a shovel as \u201ca broad blade or scoop\u201d\u2014the Oxford Dictionary mentions upturned sides. But I now realize that my dad didn\u2019t teach me all<\/em> the facts of life. (Actually, he didn\u2019t even teach me \u201cthose\u201d facts of life\u2014I had to work it out for myself. But I digress.) The fact of life he omitted to tell me is that some shovels are hybrids, in that they both dig and scoop. As with many hybrids though, effectiveness is compromised.<\/p>\n

\"\"This is such a hybrid, and yes, it\u2019s called a \u201cshovel\u201d. Some models are even spade-shaped (as in the playing card spade), yet they\u2019re still called \u201cshovels\u201d. It\u2019s true that you can buy snow shovels, barn shovels, and so on that really are scoopy things and therefore qualify as shovels, but ask for a shovel in North America and this is what you\u2019ll get. It\u2019s neither broad nor scoop-shaped and ipso facto not a real shovel.<\/p>\n

Sporks and the Like<\/h1>\n

Most of us have seen sporks, even if we haven\u2019t test-driven one. Less well-known are the spife and the knork. I won\u2019t insult your intelligence by explaining their hybridity. But the spife seems to me to be the ideal weapon to use in the fight against the blatant abuse of the English language vis-\u00e0-vis the North American \u201cshovel\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Given that a shovel scoops and a spade cuts and moves, their culinary equivalents would quite naturally be the spoon and knife respectively.
\n If that is the case, and given that the spoon-knife hybrid is a spife, then perhaps this hybrid between a shovel and a spade (which I have to confess is quite useful in some situations, unlike the spife) should be referred to as a \u201cspavel\u201d.<\/p>\n

Let’s Call a Spade a Boat<\/h1>\n

In today\u2019s PC minefield of inappropriate metaphors and euphemisms, some mistakenly regard the phrase \u201cto call a spade a spade\u201d as a racist remark. But according to World Wide Words<\/a>,\u00a0 it\u2019s the result of a translation error.<\/p>\n

The phrase has its origins in the Greek language of a couple of millennia ago. The Greek writer Plutarch suggested that the Macedonians were too unsubtle a people to do anything other than use blunt words. He used the word skaphe<\/em> \u2014a word that means some kind of vessel, such as a bowl, basin, trough or boat. Apparently a mediaeval scholar misread it during translation to Latin, and the mistake was perpetuated when the Tudor-era playwright Nicholas Udall translated it into English. (Many thanks to Michael Quinion at WWW.)<\/p>\n

Bam! Now we\u2019re calling a bowl a spade.<\/p>\n

If that translation error hadn\u2019t been made, the phrase would be \u201cto call a bowl a bowl,\u201d and all that confusion with derogatory terms for black people could have been avoided. Mind you, I\u2019m sure there are people out there who use \u201cbowl\u201d as a derogatory term for some minority or other, and if there aren\u2019t, it\u2019s only a matter of time\u2026<\/p>\n

Let’s Call a Spade a Mukluk (or an Oyster, or a Cupcake)<\/h1>\n

At the end of that very well-worn cliched day, it doesn\u2019t matter what you call things as long as everyone knows what you\u2019re talking about.
\n Mind you, over time, the meanings of words shift, and it could well be caused at least in part by misuse that becomes accepted use. By way of illustration, try looking up the original meanings of words such as flirt, guy, gay, and naughty.<\/p>\n

So, anyway. This weekend, me and my mukluk are digging up the edge of the lawn so I can bury a vertical weed barrier. I\u2019m using both a cutty cutty mukluk as well as a scoopy scoopy mukluk.<\/p>\n

I sure hope the weather holds out\u2014I hate digging in the yard when it\u2019s raining shovels and spades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The art of digging is dying. No, I\u2019m not looking for a gravedigging pun here. (Actually, I did look, but couldn\u2019t find one.) Long considered men\u2019s work, most men could handle a spade and a shovel quite well even if they didn\u2019t labour for a living, because so many families grew their own vegetables. Many women would have become expert… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[445,442,441,446,444,443,667],"class_list":["post-791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fake","tag-knork","tag-shovel","tag-spade","tag-spavel","tag-spife","tag-spork","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1556,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions\/1556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}