In Spades
Yesterday we talked about a few different types of suits; lawsuits, suit yourself, well-suited. However, I omitted another type of suit. In playing cards we call the symbols ‘suits’. The four most common suits are diamonds, hearts, clubs, and spades. Indeed, that is where today’s phrase comes from, card suits.
In spades is an intensifier that means to have a lot of something. Maybe you have a lot of a certain type of physical object. In spades can also be applied to non-physical attributes as well. I most often hear ‘in spades’ used to describe personality traits.
Example (physical): I have board games in spades.
Example (figurative): She has kindness in spades.
In spades dates to 1929. It was first recorded from Damon Runyon, “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.” He was saying that there was an abundance of poor actors on Broadway. So, it is clear by that time that in spades was commonly used to mean a lot of something. And we know where it comes from.
The card game, Bridge, was a popular game in America. In 1925, the modern version of the game was developed. Bridge is a card game played with two teams of two. In each round four cards are played (one from each player). The cards must have the same suit if possible. The highest card wins. But before the match starts, the players choose a trump suit. That suit will automatically beat every other suit. My understanding of Bridge is incomplete, so it is hard for me to understand why spades is so significant. It seems that any of the suits could have evolved into today’s expression. However, there is another game called Spades in which spades is always the trump suit. In spades means having a lot of one suit.
A Brief History of Suits
The four suits that we use today weren’t the only suits ever used on playing cards. The Italians and Spanish used chalices (cups), swords, money (coins), and batons. The Germans used hearts, acorns, hand bells, and leaves. There were many different suits and symbols used on playing cards over the years with a lot of them determined by the local geography and customs. There is reason to believe that suits might have stood for something. Some historians believe that hearts represent the clergy, spades represent nobility or the military, diamonds represent merchants, and clubs represent peasants.
If spades represent nobility, you can see how they might be considered the trump cards. As a matter of fact, King James I and Queen Anne imposed laws requiring card producers to print their insignia on the Ace of Spades. This was done for tax purposes. The stamp on the highest card (Ace of Spades) proved that the company paid their taxes. The Ace of Spades is still frequently printed with a special design. Forging an ace was a crime punishable by death. The card is clearly important. See how often you can spot it in Chris Ramsey’s card reviews (example: https://youtu.be/FnnJqOFK17c)
The history of playing cards is really interesting. We only touched briefly on the suits, but there is so much more to discover. There are 52 cards in a deck and 52 weeks in a year. There are four suits and four seasons. The characters on the cards also have meaning. In British and French decks, the kings are Charles, David, Caesar and Alexander the Great. The queens have changed more but are generally Palls, Judith, Rachel and Argine. The “British Rule” changes which is worth more depending on who is in power. If a king reigns, the kings are more powerful. When a queen reigns, those cards are worth more than the kings. Perhaps, we will look more into playing cards in a future entry. There are many English phrases derived from playing cards.
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Reference:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/08/the-lost-origins-of-playing-card-symbols/537786/
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/in-spades.html
http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?t=5557
http://www.word-detective.com/2011/12/in-spades/
https://www.bridgebum.com/bridge_history.php
https://www.technology.org/2018/10/26/why-ace-of-spades-is-so-ornate-and-other-aces-are-not/