[thr0w__4w4y]

I'm always learning. I truly thought that the term was probably centuries old and had something to do with family legacy, old rules being followed to keep tradition, etc. You live, you learn.

I often hear people use the phrase "call a spade a spade", thinking it's saying "if a card shows a spade, call it as a spade (when showing the hand)", but I've heard for a long time that phrase is also racist. Not growing up around anyone who ever used that phrase, I would have had no idea.

Makes me wonder how many other phrases out there in every day use don't have a happy meaning, even though at first glance they might seem innocuous.

[tokai]

The spade phrase is from ancient greece with 500 years of use in the english language. Don't know how it could be racist.

The spade is question is a digging tool.

[bigbubba]

It could be mistaken for a racist expression by somebody who knows 'spade' as a racial slur for black people.

[tzs]

Similar to "chink in one's armor. A "chink" means "a narrow opening or crack", and a chink in one's armor means a weak point that makes you vulnerable to attack.

But "chink" is also an offensive term for a Chinese person, so "chink in one's armor" can be misunderstood, especially if what you are talking about actually involves a Chinese person. ESPN got in trouble a couple of times with it, even though they had used it thousands of times before without incident, because of a couple articles where the weakness they were describing on some team was a player who was Chinese.

[Veen]

Niggardly is another such word. It has no relation to the racial slur, originating in the Old Norse "nigla", but it would be unwise to use it today.