Spade
/speɪd/noun
A tool with a broad flat blade used for digging or lifting soil, or one of the four suits in a deck of cards.
Did you know?The playing-card suit name likely spread from the shape of the symbol, while the tool-word traces back to Old English, showing how everyday words can survive by splitting into completely different cultural lives.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*spadō
“a spade, shovel”
Old English
OE
spadu, spada
“a spade, shovel”
Middle English
ME
spade
“a spade, digging tool”
16th Century
English
spade
“the suit of spades in cards, named for the tool-shaped symbol”
Modern English
English
spade
“a digging tool; one of the four card suits”