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'Calling a tub a tub' was the ancient Greek way to express this idea of calling a common simple thing by its simple common name. So it really just meant to speak plainly or talk straight and still does. But one and the same Greek word skaphos meant both primarily a tub or skiff, and secondarily a spade or shovel. (The same basic idea of a hollowed object split into two distinctly different notions in English.)
When John Knox mistranslated this expression and replaced the more common word tub with the less common word spadearound 1550 it stuck.
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What does Call a spade a spade mean?
'Calling a tub a tub' was the ancient Greek way to express this idea of calling a common simple thing by its simple common name. So it really just meant to speak plainly or talk straight and still does.But one and the same Greek word skaphos meant both primarily a tub or skiff, and secondarily a spade or shovel. (The same basic idea of a hollowed object split into two distinctly different notions in English.)When John Knox mistranslated this expression and replaced the more common word tub with the less common word spadearound 1550 it stuck.
What is spade in Tagalog?
Tagalog Translation of SPADE: espada
