A spade is a tool primarily for digging consisting of a long handle and blade, typically with the blade narrower and flatter than the common

shovel A shovel is a tool used for digging, lifting, and moving bulk materials, such as soil, coal, gravel, snow, sand, or ore. Most shovels are hand tools consisting of a broad blade fixed to a medium-length handle. Shovel blades are usually made ...

.Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) definition of spade
/ref> Early spades were made of

riven ''Riven'' is a puzzle adventure video game. It is the sequel to '' Myst'' and second in the ''Myst'' series of games. Developed by Cyan Worlds, it was initially published by Red Orb Entertainment, a division of Broderbund. ''Riven'' was dis ...

wood or of animal bones (often

shoulder blade The scapula (plural scapulae or scapulas), also known as the shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). Like their connected bones, the scapulae are paired, with each scapula on either ...

s). After the art of

metalworking Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale ...

was developed, spades were made with sharper tips of metal. Before the introduction of metal spades manual labor was less efficient at moving

earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...

, with picks being required to break up the soil in addition to a spade for moving the dirt. With a metal tip, a spade can both break and move the earth in most situations, increasing efficiency. A classic spade, with a narrow body and flat (or near flat) tip is suited for digging post holes, and is not to be confused with a "roundpoint" shovel, which has a wider body and tapered tip.

Etymology

English ''spade'' is from Old English ' (f.) or ' (m.). The same word is found in

Old Frisian Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries along the North Sea coast, roughly between the mouths of the Rhine and Weser rivers. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland (today's Northern Frie ...

' and

Old Saxon Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). It ...

High German The High German dialects (german: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (); not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called ''High German'', comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and ...

' only appears in

Early Modern German Early New High German (ENHG) is a term for the period in the history of the German language generally defined, following Wilhelm Scherer, as the period 1350 to 1650. The term is the standard translation of the German (Fnhd., Frnhd.), introduce ...

, probably loaned from

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle ...

. In the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway the word is ''spade'' as well. Other Scandinavian forms are in turn loaned from

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

. The term may thus not originate in

Common Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bra ...

and appears to be a

North Sea Germanic North Sea Germanic, also known as Ingvaeonic , is a postulated grouping of the northern West Germanic languages that consists of Old Frisian, Old English, and Old Saxon, and their descendants. Ingvaeonic is named after the Ingaevones, a West G ...

innovation or loaned. Closely related is

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: , whence

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

Designs

Spades are made in many shapes and sizes, for a variety of different functions and jobs, and there are many different designs used in spade manufacturing. People often mistakenly use the word ''

'' interchangeably with spade but shovel is a generic term for a variety of tools that include numerous broad-bottomed versions for moving loose materials, such as a "coal shovel", "snow shovel", "grain shovel", etc., whereas spades tend to have a sharpened edge, curved profile, and pointed end better designed for digging. Noting that the term "garden spade" is attached to certain sharp-edged but square ended tools suited to cutting through sod. The most common garden spade typically has a long handle, is wide, and is treaded (has rests for the feet to drive the spade into the ground). An ''Irish spade'' is similar to a common garden spade, with the same general design, although it has a much thinner head. A ''sharpshooter'' is a narrow spade. A ''turfing iron'' has a short, round head, and is used for cutting and paring off turf. A '' digging fork,'' or ''grape,'' not referred to as a spade, is forked much like a pitchfork, and is useful for loosening ground and gardening. Small spades are made as toys for children. The ''

fishtail Fishtail may refer to: Biology *The rearmost fish fin or caudal fin * Fishtail palm (genus ''Caryota'') Transportation *Fishtailing, a problem in car handling * Fishtail Air, a helicopter airline based in Kathmandu, Nepal Places * Fishtai ...

spade'' has a flared triangular blade combining the versatility of the dutch hoe and power of the common round point shovel into a multipurpose tool.

Loy ploughing

Loy ploughing was a form of manual ploughing carried out in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

using a form of spade called a loy. It was done on very small farms where horses could not be afforded or did not have enough work, and on very hilly ground where horses could not work. It was used on poorer land until the 1960s. This suited the moist climate of Ireland as the trenches formed by turning in the sods providing

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditio ...

. It also allowed potatoes to be grown on mountain slopes where nothing else could be cultivated.

Currency

The blade of the spade was used as

currency in ancient China The history of Chinese currency spans more than 3000 years. Currency of some type has been used in China since the Neolithic age which can be traced back to between 3000 and 4500 years ago. Cowry shells are believed to have been the earliest ...

. Later, they were miniaturized and then stylized into a flat piece. The

Qin Dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), ...

replaced them with round coins.

Also called spades

* In the

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

and

chemical process In a scientific sense, a chemical process is a method or means of somehow changing one or more chemicals or chemical compounds. Such a chemical process can occur by itself or be caused by an outside force, and involves a chemical reaction of some ...

industries, a spade is a round piece of metal with a small tab that is placed in between two pipe flanges to give positive isolation from the centre, usually to prevent cross-contamination between fluids or to allow work on the line. The name comes from the shape, which is a little like a garden spade. The small tab shows that the spade is in place. * In

kitchenware :'' For a record label, see Kitchenware Records'' Kitchenware are the tools, utensils, appliances, dishes, and cookware used in food preparation, or the serving of food. Kitchenware can also be used in order to hold or store food before or af ...

, certain ice cream scoops are called spades due to the shape. These scoops are used more in making hand-scooped milkshakes or desserts where a lot of ice cream can be scooped at once and the typical "ball" shape of scooped ice cream (i.e., scoops on a

cone A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines co ...

) is not needed. The spade-shaped head also helps scrape off the ice cream stuck to the sides of the cartons.

References

*
Etymology OnLine

External links

{{authority control Gardening tools Shovels