To call a spade a spade

To "call a spade a spade" is a figurative expression which refers to calling something "as it is", that is, by its right or proper name, without ""—being outspoken about it, truthfully, frankly, and directly, even to the point of being blunt or rude, and even if the subject is considered coarse, impolite, or unpleasant. The idiom originates in the classical Greek of Plutarch's Apophthegmata Laconica, and was introduced into the English language in 1542 in Nicolas Udall's translation of the Apophthegmes, where Erasmus had seemingly replaced Plutarch's images of "trough" and "fig" with the more familiar "spade." The idiom has appeared in many literary and popular works, including those of Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, W. Somerset Maugham, and Jonathan Swift.

To 'call a spade a spade', or, 'to call a spade a shovel' are both forms of the figurative expression which requests that the speaker should, or has, called a person, place or thing, by the most suitable name it could have without any reservation to the feelings or strained formalities that may result from its use. The implication is that one tells the truth regarding the nature of the thing in question, speaking frankly and directly about it, even if it is considered coarse, impolite, or unpleasant.Brewer defined it in 1913 as being "outspoken, blunt, even to the point of rudeness", adding that it implies one's calling "things by their proper names without any 'beating about the bush'".

The ultimate source of this idiom is a phrase in Plutarch's Apophthegmata Laconica:'την σκαφην σκαφην λεγοντας (ten skaphen skaphen legontas). The word σκαφη (skaphe) means "basin, or trough."Lucian De Hist. Conscr. (41) has τα συκα συκα, την σκαφην δε σκαφην ονομασων (ta suka suka, ten skaphen de skaphen onomason), "calling a fig a fig, and a trough a trough".

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