runcible spoon

9.9

An old, unusual spoon with a fork-like end

noun
/ˈrʌnsəbl spuːn/

Literature

: cuchara runcible

They dined on mince and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon.

Examples

During the tea party, Jane showed off her collection of silly cutlery, including a shiny runcible spoon.
The children laughed as they stirred their soup with a runcible spoon at the playful picnic.
In the story, the character used a runcible spoon to eat their whimsical dinner of fruit and cheese.

Synonyms

kitchen utensil

vsruncible spoon

3 1.4

A tool like a spoon or knife that people use in the kitchen to prepare food

is a fanciful playful form rather than an ordinary practical cooking tool

runcible utensil

vsruncible spoon

Literature

9.9

A playful, unusual tool for serving or eating food

is more specific, referring to that fanciful form with fork-like features and nonsense origin

Surface Forms

runcible spoon singular

runcible spoons plural

Morphology

runcible + spoon

“Runcible” is a nonce, fanciful word coined by Edward Lear with no stable, compositional meaning, so knowing “spoon” does not allow a learner to infer what properties “runcible” contributes (shape, function, or decorative quality). The modifier is idiosyncratic and lexicalized as humorous/nonce vocabulary, making the phrase’s meaning unpredictable and therefore opaque to a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words.

Etymology

Runcible spoon comes from the poet Edward Lear, who used the made-up word runcible in a playful poem where the characters ate 'with a runcible spoon'. That's why people later used runcible spoon to name odd or fork-like pieces of cutlery, so today it means 'a funny or unusual kind of spoon'.