<P> Brewer includes the expression in his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable in 1913, providing a definition largely consistent with contemporary English usage in the early 21st century . The Oxford English Dictionary records a forceful, obscene variant, "to call a spade a bloody shovel", attested since 1919 . </P> <P> The phrase appeared in Joseph Devlin's book How to Speak and Write Correctly (1910), where he satirized speakers who chose their words to show superiority: "For instance, you may not want to call a spade a spade . You may prefer to call it a spatulous device for abrading the surface of the soil . Better, however, to stick to the old familiar, simple name that your grandfather called it ." </P> <P> Oscar Wilde uses the phrase in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), when the character Lord Henry Wotton remarks: "It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things . The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one . It is the only thing he is fit for ." Wilde uses it again in The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Other authors who have used it in their works include Charles Dickens and W. Somerset Maugham . </P> <P> The expression is also used in Spanish - speaking countries as "a llamar al pan pan, y al vino vino ." This translates as "to call bread bread, and to call wine wine ." It has the same connotations as the previously mentioned English versions regarding spades . </P>

Where does the saying paid back in spades come from