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, Reddy Hannah with Wimbush, Angela and Linesberry, Debbie, “Abbreviations and Acronyms”, in Dr. Russell G. Swenson, editor, Defense and Intelligence Abbreviations and Acronyms‎^[1], Washington, DC: Joint Military Intelligence College, archived from the original on 18 September 2017, page 192:

     SPAD Special Advisor

   • 2009, Ben Wright, Hidden world of the political advisers‎^[2], 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;

• DAPs, daps, PADS, pads, APDs, PDAs, APDS, ASPD, SaPD

• IPA^(key): [ˈspat]

spad m inan

1. fallout

• “spad”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “spad”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

spad

1. imperative of spada

Deverbal from spadać.

• IPA^(key): /ˈspat/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -at
• Syllabification: spad

spad m inan

1. (printing) bleed
2. windfall (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

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /sbad/

spad (past spad, future spadaidh, verbal noun spadadh, past participle spadte)

1. to flatten
2. to floor, to knock down
3. to kill

“spad” in Am Faclair Beag - Scottish Gaelic Dictionary.

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

spad n

1. (cooking) broth, decoction (water that something has been boiled in (whether used as an ingredient or not))

   korvspad

   sausage broth (water that sausages have been boiled in)

2. (colloquial, usually in the shortened definite form "spat") lake- or seawater, drink

   trilla i spa(de)t

   fall into the drink

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").

• klart som korvspad

• buljong
• fond

• spad in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• spad in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• spad in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• spad in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)