Call a spade a spade
Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2025 6:17 am
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Today's expression is "to call a spade a spade". You'll see, it's relatively simple, especially when I explain the words to you. We have the verb "to call". "To call" has different meanings. It can mean to shout to attract someone's attention. If I call my son Tom, I'll say: "Tom!" There, I'm calling him. It can mean to phone someone. If I say "I'm calling my daughter Emma", it can mean I'm calling her. But in the case of the expression, it means to give a name to someone or something, to name someone or something. Personally, my name is Johan, for example.
A "cat" is a wild animal or especially indonesia whatsapp number data a domestic one today. It is part of the feline family. There are all sizes, there are small cats, big cats, but it is a pet, a domestic animal very common in families all over the world in fact.
We understand that, we understand that "to call" means to have a name or to give a name, a "cat" is an animal, so we have: "to call a cat a cat". What could that possibly mean? You'll see that it dates back to the 18th century, this expression dates back to the 18th century. At the time, the female sex was called a cat in slang. The cat was the female sex, it was in slang, so in somewhat popular language, and more precisely, pubic hair, so the hair that can be in this area of the woman. And in fact, we were playing on the ambiguity that can exist between the pet and the female sex in the end.
The very famous classical poet Nicolas Boileau, was one of the first to use the expression in a satire that denounced a little the hypocrisy of society, hypocrisy in the sense, we want to talk about or name the female sex, but rather than really using the word, rather than calling it by its name, we call it a cat. So, we are not direct, we are not frank, we do not give the real name of a thing a little out of hypocrisy according to Nicolas Boileau.
Today's expression is "to call a spade a spade". You'll see, it's relatively simple, especially when I explain the words to you. We have the verb "to call". "To call" has different meanings. It can mean to shout to attract someone's attention. If I call my son Tom, I'll say: "Tom!" There, I'm calling him. It can mean to phone someone. If I say "I'm calling my daughter Emma", it can mean I'm calling her. But in the case of the expression, it means to give a name to someone or something, to name someone or something. Personally, my name is Johan, for example.
A "cat" is a wild animal or especially indonesia whatsapp number data a domestic one today. It is part of the feline family. There are all sizes, there are small cats, big cats, but it is a pet, a domestic animal very common in families all over the world in fact.
We understand that, we understand that "to call" means to have a name or to give a name, a "cat" is an animal, so we have: "to call a cat a cat". What could that possibly mean? You'll see that it dates back to the 18th century, this expression dates back to the 18th century. At the time, the female sex was called a cat in slang. The cat was the female sex, it was in slang, so in somewhat popular language, and more precisely, pubic hair, so the hair that can be in this area of the woman. And in fact, we were playing on the ambiguity that can exist between the pet and the female sex in the end.
The very famous classical poet Nicolas Boileau, was one of the first to use the expression in a satire that denounced a little the hypocrisy of society, hypocrisy in the sense, we want to talk about or name the female sex, but rather than really using the word, rather than calling it by its name, we call it a cat. So, we are not direct, we are not frank, we do not give the real name of a thing a little out of hypocrisy according to Nicolas Boileau.