Bear it out in spades

[JPablo]

I was not able to find a definition for this "idiom".

Is it actually just a combination of "bear out" and "in spades"?

Random House gives,
30. bear out, to substantiate; confirm: The facts bear me out.
and
5. in spades, Informal.
a. in the extreme; positively: He's a hypocrite, in spades.
b. without restraint; outspokenly: I told him what I thought, in spades.

(That seems to be the case... but having both idioms together seems to be a common collocation, right?)

Any additional data, comments and/or confirmation on this will be greatly appreciated.

[Perikles]

This is a new one for me. I've heard bear out often enough, but never in spades, which seems to be 1920s colloquial English.

[JPablo]

Thank you, Perikles.

Is it maybe some English/Canadian type of collocation?

Here is one context,

This is old news, and yet the recent comparative evidence bears it out in spades. Even the most cursory glance at European health-care systems shows that the introduction of competition among providers and insurers, and the rush to implement new payment systems or sources of revenue, have often exacerbated attempts to undertake coherent planning for reforming the delivery and organization of care.

Then in another musical forum I find,

We always debate about having a teacher especially in the early phases of learning and this thread bears it out in spades...

Per these examples, it seems to just indicate it is a combination of both meanings, right?

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by JPablo

I was not able to find a definition for this "idiom".

Is it actually just a combination of "bear out" and "in spades"?

Yes.

"In spades" probably comes from the game of bridge. I'm not sure why it isn't "in no trumps", since NT is more valuable than S, but así es.

[JPablo]

Interesting...

I was thinking on 'calling a spade a spade' and the Spanish "a paladas" "a carretadas"...

And now I check Oxford examples (a posteriori...)
b spades pl (suit) (+ sing or pl vb) picas fpl; spades are o is trumps triunfan picas; in spades (AmE colloq): you have our support, in spades = te apoyamos cien por ciento; we’ll have trouble in spades if this gets back to the boss = vamos a tener problemas en cantidad or (Esp tb) a punta pala si se entera el jefe (fam)

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by pjt33

"In spades" probably comes from the game of bridge. I'm not sure why it isn't "in no trumps", since NT is more valuable than S, but así es.

Yes, this is a good question. The term seems to have started in the 1920s, at the time when bridge was being developed. I'm wondering whether in those days the present scoring with NT higher than spades had not been developed. I can't find a history of bridge which gives this information, and there is a limit to how much I care about it anyway. (I'm posting this whilst my partner is trying to work out what she should bid, by the way ).

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by Perikles

(I'm posting this whilst my partner is trying to work out what she should bid, by the way ).

If it takes her that long she should just double and let you figure out what she meant

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by pjt33

If it takes her that long she should just double and let you figure out what she meant

Yes, that would indeed have been difficult to figure that out, since she was responding to my bid, not an opponent's bid.

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by Perikles

Yes, that would indeed have been difficult to figure that out, since she was responding to my bid, not an opponent's bid.

Oops.

Update: a bit of digging with Wikipedia led to [1], which describes an early whist variant which evolved into bridge. It already had no trumps, under the name "biritch", counting higher than spades in 1886. So the mystery remains.

[1] http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Biritch,_or_Russian_Whist

[JPablo]

Mmm... I don't know if I am following everything here (my "Bridge" know-how is null...)

But I found this,
http://www.takeourword.com/TOW193/page2.html

And then this,
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_b...sages/513.html