Spades

[LukeJavan8]

In abundance; very much. It's easy to believe that this expression derives from the imagery of digging with spades and that 'in spades' is just short for 'in spadefuls'. However, the spades concerned here aren't the garden tools but the suit of cards. Hearts and Spades are the higher ranking suits in the game of Contract Bridge, a very popular pastime in the USA in the early 20th century, which is when and where the phrase originated.

Despite the agricultural-sounding name and the shovel-like shape, the suit in cards has nothing directly to do with garden spades. Playing Cards originated in Asia and spread across Europe around the 14th century, arriving in England a little later than in Spain, Italy and Germany.

The Italian versions of early cards used the suits Cups, Swords, Coins and Batons, which, on migration to England, became Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs. The image for Spades on English and French cards looks somewhat like that of the German Acorn or Leaf suits, but its origin is revealed by its name rather than its shape. The Spanish and Italian for sword is 'espado' and 'spado' respectively, hence the suit 'Swords' became anglicized as 'Spades'.

We have been 'calling a spade a spade' for many centuries, but the expression 'in spades' is a 20th century US coinage. The term was often used before that in relation to card games, where Bridge contracts might be entered into in the minor suits of Clubs or Diamonds or, for the higher scores, 'in Hearts' or 'in Spades'.

The figurative meaning, i.e. the non-cards-related 'very greatly' meaning, isn't found before the 1920s. The American journalist and writer Damon Runyon used the expression that way in a piece for Hearst's International magazine, in October 1929:

"I always hear the same thing about every bum on Broadway, male and female, including some I know are bums, in spades, right from taw."

(Phrase a Week)

[beck123]

Playing cards have a mottled history. Before sighting land on the first crossing, Columbus's crew members discarded theirs (I almost said "their decks," but that would have been a poor choice of words,) fearing for their lives that the cards were sinful, offended God, and were the source of their misfortune. When they reached the Caribbean, they enlisted the help of the native people to produce new decks.

In subsequent trips, they discovered that the use of cards had spread across the Caribbean, and later explorers found Central American people already using European-style playing cards. European playing cards found their way to the continent before Europeans themselves!