On Monday 02 May 2005 14:49, Josh Berkus wrote:
> Bruce,
>
> > > (P.S. on a complete tangent, "call a spade a spade" is actually a
> > > racist expression originating in the reconstruction-era South.
> > > "spade" does
> >
> > You must be from California. :-)
>
> Well, yes. Actually, from San Francisco, which is even worse. And I
> just spent the weekend in Orange County which really gotten my PC dander
> up. Sorry, Dave!
And this is why I hate the PC movement... The phrase calling a spade a spade
pre-dates the U.S. as whole, much less the reconstruction-era South. It is
believed to have been introduced into the english language via John Knox in
the 1500's who wrote "I have learned to call wickedness by its own terms: A
fig, a fig, and a spade a spade", borrowing from an earlier latin text, which
is believed to be based on an even earlier Greek writer.
--
Robert Treat
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