spad

Shortening of special adviser.

• SpAd, SpAD

spad (plural spads)

1. (UK politics, informal) A government adviser, often in a political or media role.
   • 1997 November 1, Hannah, Reddy; Wimbush, Angela;Linesberry, Debbie, “Abbreviations and Acronyms”, in Dr. Russell G. Swenson, editor, Defense and Intelligence Abbreviations and Acronyms‎, Washington, DC: Joint Military Intelligence College, archived from the original on March 12, 2016, page 192:

     SPAD Special Advisor

   • 2009, Ben Wright, Hidden world of the political advisers, BBC:

     A successful stint as a spad can be a crucial political apprenticeship - as many of the current crop of professional politicians including the Miliband brothers, David Cameron and George Osborne can testify - so long as they stay in the dark.

   • 2012, Avoid The Thick of It-style spad appointments, ministers told, The Guardian:

     The hit BBC sitcom satirising the inner workings of Whitehall and the so-called spads contains "more than a grain of truth", the head of the cross-party public administration select committee has warned.

spad (plural spads)

1. (mining) A nail one or two inches long, of iron, brass, tin, or tinner iron, with a hole through the flattened head, used to mark stations in underground surveying.

spad (plural spads)

1. Clipping of spadona/spadone.
   • 1911 September, contributed by Cyphers Incubator Co., “Ostrich Farming in South Africa”, in American Poultry World, volume II, number 11, Buffalo, N.Y.: American Poultry Publishing Co., page 966:

     No. 6.—Spadonas or spads, the first wing-quills of the chick, clipped at about six months.

   • 1921 September 7, The New York Times, volume LXX, number 23,237, New York, N.Y., page 24, column 6:

     RAW OSTRICH FEATHERS / Primes, Wings, White Feminas, Spads, Etc.

   • 1924 February 12, “On Ostrich Feathers”, in The Manchester Guardian, number 24,175, page 6, column 4:

     “What d’you mean—‘feathers’,” asked the tanned young public school man who volunteered to trot me round, “spads, second-after-chicks, fancies, natals, black butts, adults, juvenals, byocks, chicks, primes, feminas, or what?” […] The first white ones we call spads. […] Two or three months after that clipping we pull out the spad quills.

   • 1959, The Standard Bank Review, The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, page 15:

     An improvement was noted in the demand for femina wings, spads and long bodies;

• APDS, ASPD, PDAs, SaPD, daps, pads

• IPA^(key): [ˈspat]

spad m inan

1. fallout

• spad in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• spad in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

spad

1. imperative of spada

Deverbal from spadać.

• IPA^(key): /spat/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -at
• Syllabification: spad

spad m inan

1. (printing) bleed
2. a fallen nut or fruit
3. (collective) fallen nuts or fruit
4. slope, gradient

• spad in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• spad in Polish dictionaries at PWN

From Old Swedish spadh. Cognate with Icelandic spað and Danish spad.

spad n

1. broth, decoction
2. (colloquial) a body of water

Colloquial sense often used in the abbreviated definite singular form spat, for example hoppa i spat ("jump in the water") or trilla i spat ("fall in the water").

• spad in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• spad in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)