August 9, 2003 at 12:00 am
#28668
Steve27672
Member
I remember seeing this phrase in the English translation of the Greek writer Erasmus; ‘I have learned to call wickedness by its own terms: A fig is a fig and a spade a spade.’ This would make it 300 BC or so. The saying is meant to indicate someone who speaks frankly. ‘Spade’ is clearly a racist term in the United States, likely due to the black color of the spade, as in shovel, or the spade, as in the Ace of Spades. Therefore, the saying has also had its meaning adjusted to ‘if someone is black, call them black.’
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