Re: spade and shovel (was [romconlang] -able)

ROGER MILLS wrote at 2008-04-17 00:28:12 (-0400)
 > Herman Miller wrote:
 > >
 > >And here I thought a trowel was one of those things bricklayers use.
 > >
 > It is indeed, and probably where the gardening tool gets it name;
 > they're similar, though not identical.

It's not obvious to me that the gardener's tool should have taken its
name from the bricklayer's, rather than vice versa, but the OED
confirms the precedence of the masonry trowel:

| 1. a. A tool consisting of a flat (or, less commonly, rounded) plate
| of metal or wood, of various shapes, attached to a short handle;
| used by masons, bricklayers, plasterers, and others for spreading,
| moulding, or smoothing mortar, cement, and the like.
|
| 1344 _Pipe Roll 18 Edw. III_, m. 45 (P.R.O.) In..iiij. hamers,
| iiij. Trowellis, vj hirdellis pro lymeputtes..xxx. ladlis pro
| cemento fundendo. 1382 WYCLIF _Amos_ vii. 7 Loo! the Lord stondynge
| on a wall teerid, or morterd, and in the hond of hym a truel
| [v.r. trulle] of masoun.

vs.

| c. A tool of this kind used in gardening, having a hollow,
| scoop-like, semi-cylindrical blade.
|
| 1796 C. MARSHALL _Garden._ iv. (1813) 52 Plants..are best put in by
| a small spade or trowel. 1846 J. BAXTER _Libr. Pract. Agric._
| (ed. 4) II. 119 The compound is firmly pressed into the moulds with
| a gardener's trowel.

(A couple of less well known tools of similar type are also listed.)

 > Mason's trowel has a flat longish sharply pointed triangular blade;
 > gardening trowel's blade is slightly concave, ~4 in. broad, that
 > rounds to a pointed end.

A Google image search for "trowel" is useful here.

http://images.google.com/images?q=trowel

There's more than one kind.

Gardening: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Trowel.JPG
Bricklaying: http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/pointing%20trowel.jpg
Plastering: http://www.artsparx.com/images/ven_trowel001.gif

As to shovels & spades, in my ideolect, which the OED definitions
more-or-less go along with, the difference is functional: a spade is
for digging, with a sturdy blade cutting into the earth driven by the
foot & then levering up a clod, while a shovel for transferring
quantities of loose material from one place to another.  So a shovel
has, in general, a more capacious but less sturdy blade, which may be
at an angle to the handle, so that it may be more comfortably held
with the blade horizontal.

Of course, there is probably a substantial overlap between these two
classes of tool.

OED:

| spade, n.¹
|
| 1. a. A tool for digging, paring, or cutting ground, turf, etc., now
| usually consisting of a flattish rectangular iron blade socketed on
| a wooden handle which has a grip or cross-piece at the upper end,
| the whole being adapted for grasping with both hands while the blade
| is pressed into the ground with the foot.
| In more primitive forms, or for special purposes, the blade also may
| be wholly or partly made of wood, and its lower extremity is
| sometimes rounded or pointed.

| shovel, n.
|
| 1. a. A spade-like implement, consisting of a broad blade of metal
| or other material (more or less hollow and often with upturned
| sides), attached to a handle and used for raising and removing
| quantities of earth, grain, coal or other loose material. (In some
| dialects the word is applied to a spade.)

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