Spad

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A single-seat biplane fighter aircraft used by French and allied air forces during the First World War ; an informal name for a political special adviser attached to a government minister ; a regional term for a digging tool with a flat blade
2. An early wartime French fighter biplane with a single seat ; a slang label for a government minister's appointed political aide ; a dialect name for a spade used to dig earth
3. A French biplane fighter flown in the 1914 to 1918 war ; an informal word for an adviser hired personally by a politician ; an old northern English and Scottish word for a digging spade

Etymology: The name of this First World War fighter comes from a company, not a person. The aircraft was built by the French firm Société Pour l'Aviation et ses Dérivés, and its initials became the name of the plane. The company's name translates roughly as "Company for Aviation and its Derivatives," and its chief designer, Louis Béchereau, produced the single-seat biplane that made the firm famous. Allied pilots flew these machines in large numbers, and several of the war's leading aces, including the American Eddie Rickenbacker, scored victories in them.