CALLING A SPADE A SPADE

 

Speaking candidly, honestly, directly, and without euphemisms or beating around the bush is expressed in English with the idiomatic phrase to call a spade a spade. In Spanish, we find a similar idiom in llamar al pan, pan, y al vino, vino. "He replied, that the Macedonians were coarse people, they called a spade a spade. If all men would call a spade a spade, it would be one of the bulwarks of morality ." (The New Englander, 1852.)  And closer to us, in David Walker´s book (2009), It´s Time to Call a Spade a Spade. Regardless of what some people might say, you can use the idiom freely. Let us not be harassed by grammar and usage dictators. Language is free. Remember that no offense is taken where none is intended.