Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2013 August 25

= August 25 =

Spave
What is a Spave. Know it has something to do with digging. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.176.43.48 (talk) 06:08, 25 August 2013 (UTC)


 * I know only the verb "to spave" (in Northern UK) as a variant of "spay". It's possible that the noun spave is a variant of spade in some other region of the world.    D b f i r s   06:17, 25 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Could you provide some context? Where did you see it? A brief search online just turns up a slang definition of "spending in order to save" (e.g. buying a lot of stuff because it's on sale). You also might want to try the Language refdesk for stuff like this. Matt Deres (talk) 12:51, 25 August 2013 (UTC)


 * I wonder if this could be a local corruption of Navvy, whom did a lot of digging. --Aspro (talk) 15:33, 25 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Or a person asking about a spade for dramatic effect. WP:AGF applying of course. 88.112.41.6 (talk) 15:44, 25 August 2013 (UTC)
 * I doubt it, I always call a spade a spade.  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  19:23, 25 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Spade and spathe are cognate variants, see Doublet (linguistics). Certain British dialects would pronounce the latter as spave.  Or it may just be a simple mishearing. I say olnly and uninted for only and united.  There are plenty of examples of such things.  For example, trough as troff and troth. μηδείς (talk) 19:48, 25 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, but "spave" only if you had a Cockney gheezer botanist - hang on - Dr David Bellamy might fit the bill. Alansplodge (talk) 08:51, 26 August 2013 (UTC)