in spades, right from taw, truism, altruism, altruistically minded people

Transcript and audio: Trump call with Georgia Sec. of State ...
www.washingtonpost.com › politics

1 日前 — 2 phone call. This audio has been edited to remove the name of an individual about whom the president makes unsubstantiated ... We had at least 18,000 — that's on tape, we had them counted very painstakingly — 18,000 voters having to do with [name]. ... You know, we have that in spades already.

Doing good is increasingly about more than giving away money. Living kidney donations are rising and a new movement is pushing altruistically minded people to choose careers in fields, such as AI, that will shape the world's future https://econ.st/31MSwWt



Beware Strait Talking on Oil

A military truism is that no plan survives contact with the enemy. Oil bulls focused on the Strait of Hormuz should remember that.

truism[tru・ism]

• 発音記号[trúːizm]

[名]自明の理, わかりきったこと；公理；陳腐な言葉［文句］.

tru・ís・tic

[形]

altruism[al・tru・ism]

• 発音記号[ǽltruːìzm]

[名][U]愛他主義, 愛他心, 利他主義；利他的行為（⇔egoism）.

［イタリア語altrui（他人）］

al・tru・ist

[名]愛他［利他］主義者（⇔egoist）.

n.

1. Unselfish concern for the welfare of others; selflessness.
2. Zoology. Instinctive behavior that is detrimental to the individual but favors the survival or spread of that individual's genes, as by benefiting its relatives.

[French altruisme, probably from Italian altrui, someone else, from Latin alter, other.]

altruist al'tru·ist n.
altruistic al'tru·is'tic adj.
altruistically al'tru·is'ti·cal·ly adv.

2007年6月22日星期五

in spades

SPADE 有一義是帶種族歧視的說，指黑人。我懷疑下兩北美的俗語idiom:
都與它相關：call a spade a spade 直言不諱；
本文說，in spades 指「相當、極為」(To a considerable degree, extremely):


例：
They had financial trouble in spades.
--


With this “autobiography” of his family, Alexander Waugh demonstrates that he’s inherited the literary gene in spades, as well as a gift for very funny, coruscating prose.
---
And, voilà, a mock revolution was born. Nationwide, more than a million protesters last week filled the streets of cities such as Paris, Marseille, and Bordeaux. They're not calling for political freedom, which the French enjoy in spades, both in the street and at the ballot box. The current protests lack even the altruism of France's anti-war movement, which at least suggested a certain engagement with the outside world.

----
Since then, the people he has met have been returning the favor in spades. Where Elijah tells some rather odd and extremely colorful Bible stories, Cyrano's new friend shows him people and phenomena of both ancient and modern times in an entirely new light.
法國被發現的，這就是西拉諾•德•貝熱拉克（ Cyrano de Bergerac ）。

In spades

Meaning
In abundance; very much.
Origin
It's easy to believe that this expression derives from the imagery of digging with spades and that 'in spades' is just short for 'in spadefuls'. However, the spades concerned here aren't the garden tools but the suit of cards. Hearts and Spades are the higher ranking suits in the game of Contract Bridge, a very popular pastime in the USA in the early 20th century, which is when and where the phrase originated.
Despite the agricultural-sounding name and the shovel-like shape, the suit in cards has nothing directly to do with garden spades. Playing Cards originated in Asia and spread across Europe around the 14th century, arriving in England a little later than in Spain, Italy and Germany.
The Italian versions of early cards used the suits Cups, Swords, Coins and Batons, which, on migration to England, became Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs. The image for Spades on English and French cards looks somewhat like that of the German Acorn or Leaf suits, but its origin is revealed by its name rather than its shape. The Spanish and Italian for sword is 'espado' and 'spado' respectively, hence the suit 'Swords' became anglicized as 'Spades'.
We have been 'calling a spade a spade' for many centuries, but the expression 'in spades' is a 20th century US coinage. The term was often used before that in relation to card games, where Bridge contracts might be entered into in the minor suits of Clubs or Diamonds or, for the higher scores, 'in Hearts' or 'in Spades'.
The figurative meaning, i.e. the non-cards-related 'very greatly' meaning, isn't found before the 1920s. The American journalist and writer Damon Runyon used the expression that way in a piece for Hearst's International magazine, in October 1929:

"I always hear the same thing about every bum on Broadway, male and female, including some I know are bums, in spades, right from taw."

It isn't possible to be sure that the figurative 'in spades' derives from Bridge - we don't say 'in hearts' after all, but the coincidence of the time and place of the origin of the expression and the popularity of the card game certainly does suggest a connection.

taw
n.

1. Chiefly Southern U.S. A large, fancy marble used for shooting.
2. The line from which a player shoots in marbles.
3. A game of marbles.

intr.v., tawed, taw·ing, taws.
To shoot a marble.

[Origin unknown.]