When I can't find a word, I know where to ask...

The Village Voice (NY) writes today (8/17) --

"A lucky smattering of folks who picked up The New York Times on Monday were treated to a spadia—a strip just wider than a column, overlapping the front page, that announced the day's highlights."

I can't find "spadia" in OED or usual on-line sources.

I do find "spadix," which means "A spike of flowers on a swollen, fleshy axis." Random House tracks that back to the Greek "span" meaning "torn off."

Via that stem, "spadix" may also be related "spado, Greek for eunuch (ouch.)

Anyone heard that word before?

I suggest that 'spadia' is just a misspelling of 'spadea'.

'Spadea' seems far more frequent. On a quick look I found that spelling from the very prominent Meddill School of Journalism (directly under picture), in this glossary, as well as the ad-rate sheets of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Seattle Times, Louisville Courier, Washington Post, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Edit: Add the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.

In contrast, 'spadia' had so few hits that I could easily sort out all the relevant onces. There are only 13, the most prominent being the the contact-us page of the Kansas City Star. The other 12 are Robert's cite, tsuwm's cite (appearing also here on the same site), and ten we can call Franquent, Contest, Advertiser, TechNews, Gannett, Katz, and the sites of various printers: Neff, Western, Print Quote, and Product Book

This message has been edited. Last edited by: shufitz,