English → Latin
“spade” in Latin
pālaA shovel, spade.; blade; The bezel of a ring.bipāliuma double mattockcatusclever, intelligent, sagacious, clear-thinking; cunning, crafty, sly; shrill, sharp, clear-sounding
The English word spade itself goes back to Latin spatha.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
spade
pala (Plaut.): bipalium (with a cross-bar in the lower part of the handle, just above the broad part by means of which a person using the spade could dig more deeply into the earth; Varr., Col., Cato. ☞ Ligo = a hoe, mattock). Proverbially. To call a spade a spade, aliquid ita appellare ut appellant ii qui plane et Latine loquuntur (after Cic.); rem quamque suo nomine appellare.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for spade?
- The usual Latin words for “spade” are pāla, bipālium, catus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.