different between spade vs delve

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spe?d/
• Homophone: spayed
• Rhymes: -e?d

Etymology 1

From Middle English spade, from Old English spada, spade, spadu (“spade”), from Proto-Germanic *spad?, *spadô, *spad? (“spade”). Cognate with Dutch spade, Old Frisian spada, Old Saxon spado, German Spaten, Hunsrik Spaad. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sph?-d?-, whence also Ancient Greek ????? (spáth?, “blade”), Hittite [script needed] (išpatar, “spear”), Persian ????? (sop?r, “plow”), Northern Luri ??????? (asp?r, “diging”) and Central Kurdish ??????? (esper), ???????? (espere, “cross-piece on shaft of spade to take pressure of foot”).

Noun

spade (plural spades)

1. A garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for digging. Not to be confused with a shovel which is used for moving earth or other materials.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     'Make your mind easy,' Ratsey said; 'I have dug too often in this graveyard for any to wonder if they see me with a spade.'

2. A playing card marked with the symbol ?.

3. (offensive, ethnic slur) A black person.
4. A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale.

Derived terms

• call a spade a spade
• in spades
• spadefoot
• spadeful
• spadelike
• spade mashie
• spadework
• spadeworker

Descendants

• ? Scottish Gaelic: spaid
• ? Fiji Hindi: sipi

Translations

Verb

spade (third-person singular simple present spades, present participle spading, simple past and past participle spaded)

1. To turn over soil with a spade to loosen the ground for planting.

Derived terms

• spader

References

Etymology 2

Compare spay, noun, and spado.

Alternative forms

• spaid
• spayade

Noun

spade (plural spades)

1. A hart or stag three years old.
2. A castrated man or animal.

Anagrams

• adeps, apsed, paeds, pedas

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?spa?d?/

Alternative forms

• spa

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch spade, from Old Dutch *spado, from Proto-Germanic *spadô.

Noun

spade m (plural spaden or spades)

1. spade

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch spâde, from Old Dutch *sp?di, from Proto-Germanic *sp?diz (“late”).

Adjective

spade (comparative spader, superlative spaadst)

1. (archaic) late

Inflection

Synonyms

• laat

References

Finnish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sp?de/, [?s?p?de?]
• Rhymes: -?de
• Syllabification: spa?de

Noun

spade

1. (military slang) field cook

   Synonym: sotilaskeittäjä

Friulian

Etymology

From Latin spatha (“a type of sword”), from Ancient Greek ????? (spáth?, “broad blade”).

Noun

spade f (plural spadis)

1. sword

Italian

Noun

spade f

1. plural of spada

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Middle Low German spade and Old Norse spaði, jarnspaði

Noun

spade m (definite singular spaden, indefinite plural spader, definite plural spadene)

1. a spade (tool)

   kalle en spade for en spade - call a spade a spade

2. a spadeful

   tre spader jord - three spadefuls of earth

References

• “spade” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse spaði, jarnspaði, from Middle Low German spade

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /²sp???/, /²sp??d?/

Noun

spade m (definite singular spaden, indefinite plural spadar, definite plural spadane)

1. a spade, shovel (tool)

   kalle ein spade for ein spade - call a spade a spade

2. a spadeful

   ein spade sand - a spadeful of sand

Verb

spade (present tense spader, past tense spadde, past participle spadd or spadt, present participle spadande, imperative spad)

1. Alternative form of spa

References

• “spade” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• spad

Etymology

From Old English spadu.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?spa?d(?)/

Noun

spade (plural spades)

1. tool for digging, shovel

Descendants

• English: spade
• Scots: spade, spaid
• Yola: spaade

References

• “sp?de, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse spaði, from Middle Low German spade, from Proto-Germanic *spad?, from Proto-Indo-European *sph?-d?-.

Noun

spade c

1. a spade (tool)

Declension

Related terms

• spada
• spader
• spadformad
• spadhandtag
• spadharv
• spadtag
• spadvända
• spadvändning

References

• spade in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?lv/
• Rhymes: -?lv

Etymology 1

From Middle English delven, from Old English delfan (“to dig, dig out, burrow, bury”), from Proto-Germanic *delban? (“to dig”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?elb?- (“to dig”). Cognate with West Frisian dolle (“to dig, delve”), Dutch delven (“to dig, delve”), Low German dölven (“to dig, delve”), dialectal German delben, telben (“to dig, delve”).

Verb

delve (third-person singular simple present delves, present participle delving, simple past delved or (obsolete) dolve, past participle delved or (archaic) dolven)

1. (intransitive) To dig the ground, especially with a shovel.

   • Delve of convenient depth your thrashing floor.

   • I got a spade from the tool-house, and began to delve with all my might - it scraped the coffin; I fell to work with my hands; the wood commenced cracking about the screws; I was on the point of attaining my object, when it seemed that I heard a sigh from some one above, close at the edge of the grave, and bending down.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To search thoroughly and carefully for information, research, dig into, penetrate, fathom, trace out
   • 1609-11, Shakespeare, Cymbeline, King of Britain

     I cannot delve him to the root.

   • 1943, Emile C. Tepperman, Calling Justice, Inc.!

     She was intensely eager to delve into the mystery of Mr. Joplin and his brief case.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To dig, to excavate.
   • ca. 1260, Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend

     And then they made an oratory behind the altar, and would have dolven for to have laid the body in that oratory ...

   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company, chapter IV

     Let him take off his plates and delve himself, if delving must be done.

Synonyms

• (to dig the ground): dig
• (to search thoroughly): investigate, research

Derived terms

• delver
• indelve
• undelve

Related terms

• dolven

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English delve, delf, dælf, from Old English delf, ?edelf (“digging”) and dælf (“that which is dug out, delf, ditch”). More at delf.

Noun

delve (plural delves)

1. (now rare) A pit or den.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.iii:

     the wise Merlin whylome wont (they say) / To make his wonne, low vnderneath the ground, / In a deepe delue, farre from the vew of day [...].

   • 1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage 2015, p. 75:

     I put the clods on top the delve and gave it all a good thumping down with my feet.

Related terms

• stonedelf

Anagrams

• devel

Dutch

Verb

delve

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of delven

Anagrams

• velde

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English delfan.

Verb

delve

1. Alternative form of delven

Etymology 2

From Old English delf.

Noun

delve

1. Alternative form of delf