spade vs. shovel

In a message dated 4/15/2008 14:34:41 PM Central Daylight Time,
dedalvs@GMAIL.COM writes:


> And why can't "spade" have the definition "old word for shovel"?
>
To me (midwestern USA, 52yr), a shovel has a pointed tip, and a spade has a
square edge.  A spade also has short ?stem with a grip, while a shovel may have
a short stem with a grip or a long stem with no grip.  The long shovels are
never long enough, though, it seems.
I have a couple of shovels, but no spades.
A snow shovel, on the other hand, is really a very broad spade, but nobody
would call it that.

stevo   </HTML>

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