"call a spade a spade"

[Paul]

As a 73 year old Midwesterner, I haven't heard "spade" as a racial term
for at least 30 years.  Growing up in Chicago it was an occasional slur,
but hadn't even thought of the racial definition for many, many years.
Sounds almost quaint, somewhat like the slang in a Raymond Chandler novel.

Charles Doyle wrote:
> For some speakers of American English (by no means all of them), the word "spade" has lost all applications except for use as a derogatory racial designation.
>
> On the reanalysis of the proverbial phrase "call a spade a spade," one might consult Wolfgang Mieder's monograph _Call a Spade a Spade: From Classical Phrase to Racial Slur_ (NY: Peter Lang, 2002).
>
> --Charlie
> _____________________________________________________________
>
> ---- Original message ----
>
>> Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:02:08 -0400
>> From: Doug Harris <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET>
>>
>
> The Same Dowd piece, datelined Paris, also included this:
>
>
>> 'Angela Merkel dodged when asked at a press conference whether she would miss W., but said she liked being able to "call a spade a spade with him."'
>>
>
>
>> Twas that a fox paw, an indication of a lack of familiarity with American vernacular, or merely a hopefully-NOT noteworthy phrase?
>>
>
>
>> dh
>>
>
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>

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