Fogbow

Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2024 12:21 pm Freudian slip?

In spades
What's the meaning of the phrase 'In spades'?

In abundance; very much.

What's the origin of the phrase 'In spades'?

It’s easy to believe that this expression derives from the imagery of digging with spades and that ‘in spades’ is just short for ‘in spadefuls’.

However, the spades concerned here aren’t the garden tools but the suit of cards. Spades is the highest ranking suits in the game of Contract Bridge, a very popular pastime in the USA in the early 20th century, which is when and where the phrase originated.

Despite the agricultural-sounding name and the shovel-like shape, the suit in cards has nothing directly to do with garden spades. Playing Cards originated in Asia and spread across Europe around the 14th century, arriving in England a little later than in Spain, Italy and Germany.

The Italian versions of early cards used the suits Cups, Swords, Coins and Batons, which, on migration to England, became Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs. The image for Spades on English and French cards looks somewhat like that of the German Acorn or Leaf suits, but its origin is revealed by its name rather than its shape. The Spanish and Italian for sword is ‘espada’ and ‘spada’ respectively, hence the suit ‘Swords’ became anglicized as ‘Spades’.

We have been ‘calling a spade a spade‘ for many centuries, but the expression ‘in spades’ is a 20th century US coinage. The term was often used before that in relation to card games, where Bridge contracts might be entered into in the minor suits of Clubs or Diamonds or, for the higher scores, ‘in Hearts’ or, best of all, ‘in Spades’.

The figurative meaning, that is, the non-cards-related ‘very greatly’ meaning, isn’t found before the 1920s. The American journalist and writer Damon Runyon used the expression that way in a piece for Hearst’s International magazine, in October 1929:

“I always hear the same thing about every bum on Broadway, male and female, including some I know are bums, in spades, right from taw.”

It isn’t possible to be sure that the figurative ‘in spades’ derives from Bridge, but the coincidence of the time and place of the origin of the expression and the popularity of the card game certainly does suggest a connection.

Suranis wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2024 6:22 pm https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/in-spades.html
<Pedantic snip>

Suranis wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2024 12:48 pm Please dont make me defend Eric Goddam Trump by pointing out it's just an expression, not a deeply seated and carefully crafted microagression indicator of Racism.

Jeeezus Chrystler, guys.

MN-Skeptic wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2024 7:01 pm

Suranis wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2024 12:48 pm Please dont make me defend Eric Goddam Trump by pointing out it's just an expression, not a deeply seated and carefully crafted microagression indicator of Racism.

Jeeezus Chrystler, guys.

This may just be a difference between countries, but spade is used often enough in the U.S. as a pejorative that if a black person is involved in the matter being discusses, considerate people will choose an alternate phrase.

Suranis wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2024 7:08 pm Well I think you are wrong. Argument over.

Resume18 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2024 7:29 pm

Suranis wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2024 7:08 pm Well I think you are wrong. Argument over.

No, I'm correct, it was a shit choice of words.

northland10 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2024 7:37 pm I don't see Eric as clever enough to come up with using that phrase as a dog-whistle. Does he lack the sensitivity, empathy, and intelligence to consider whether putting "in spades" next to some claim about persons of color is a good idea? Well duh.

noblepa wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2024 4:29 pm

northland10 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2024 7:37 pm I don't see Eric as clever enough to come up with using that phrase as a dog-whistle. Does he lack the sensitivity, empathy, and intelligence to consider whether putting "in spades" next to some claim about persons of color is a good idea? Well duh.

Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it, I think that Eric is just too stupid to use the word "spade" in an overtly racist way. He is simply too stupid to realize the implications.

EXCLUSIVE: Ivanka Trump appears to fight back tears as she takes an emotional phone call while heading to the gym - one week after Jared Kushner's 'very successful' second thyroid cancer surgery

• Ivanka, 40, was seen visibly upset while on her cellphone in Miami on Wednesday afternoon
• She hid her eyes behind a pair of gold-frame aviator sunglasses, but she appeared to be crying - or close to it - while holding her cellphone up to her ear
• The former White House senior adviser was dressed for the gym in a navy hooded sweatshirt with a white V-design, cropped black leggings, and black New Balance sneakers
• It's likely been a difficult few months for Ivanka, whose husband, Jared, 41, had second surgery late last week to treat an apparent recurrence of thyroid cancer
• On the same day Ivanka was seen close to tears, Jared opened up about the procedure during an appearance on The National Desk, saying it was 'very successful'
• Ivanka is also mourning her late mother Ivana Trump, who died on July 14 after a fall down her stairs
• Meanwhile, her father, former President Donald Trump, is facing a Justice Department investigation for the removal and storage of government documents at his Florida Mar-a-Lago club
  

W. Kevin Vicklund wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2024 9:37 pm Newscromancy - that story is from Sept 2022

After weathering criticism over its reliance on a gusher of Saudi cash, Jared Kushner’s investment fund made its first big splash last month when it announced it had signed a $500 million deal with the Serbian government to develop a high end real estate project in downtown Belgrade on the site of a bombed down army building destroyed during the 1999 Kosovo war.

But the fine print of the deal includes a commitment that seems destined to stir up even more international controversy: a pledge by Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners, to construct a “memorial dedicated to all the victims of NATO aggression”— an allusion to the U.S.-backed bombing campaign that brought the Serbian government of Slobodan Milosevic to its knees a quarter century ago in response to its relentless campaign of repression and savage massacres of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

Among those exercised over the Kushner deal is retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who served as NATO Supreme Allied Commander during the war.