runcible spoon (Eley & Fearn, London, 1817) Lear does not appear to have had any firm idea of what the word "runcible" means. His whimsical
nonsense verse celebrates words primarily for their sound, and a specific definition is not needed to appreciate his work. However, since the 1920s (several decades after Lear's death), modern
dictionaries have generally defined a "runcible spoon" as a
fork with three broad curved tines and a sharpened edge, used with
pickles or
hors d'oeuvres, such as a
pickle fork. It is used as a synonym for "
spork". However, this definition is not consistent with Lear's drawing, in which it is a
ladle, nor does it account for the other "runcible" objects in Lear's poems. In other uses, a so-called runcible spoon is a fork shaped like a spoon, a spoon shaped fork, a
grapefruit spoon (a spoon with serrated edges around the bowl), or a serving-spoon with a slotted bowl. Cutlery of this design (but not name) is evidenced as early as 1817. ''
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'' defines a runcible spoon as: "A horn spoon with a bowl at each end, one the size of a
table-spoon and the other the size of a
tea-spoon. There is a joint midway between the two bowls by which the bowls can be folded over." The
Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as "a sharp-edged fork with three broad curved prongs". Neither dictionary cites a source for these definitions. The "
Notes & Queries" column in
The Guardian also raised the question "What is a runcible spoon?" The fanciful answers proposed by readers included that it was a variety of spoon designed by Lear's friend George Runcy for the use of infants, or that it was a reference to a butler named Robert Runcie whose job included polishing the silver spoons. The final contribution pointed out that neither of these explained the runcible cat in "The Pobble Who Has No Toes" and simply suggested that "runcible objects (spoons or cats) exist no more than pobbles or feline-hiboutic matrimony".
The Straight Dope, while treating "runcible" as a
nonsense word with no particular meaning, claims that an unspecified 1920s source connected the word "runcible" etymologically to
Roncevaux — the connection being that a runcible spoon's cutting edge resembles a sword such as was used in the
Battle of Roncevaux Pass.
The Straight Dope adds that "modern students of runciosity" link the word in a different way to Roncevaux: The obsolete adjective "
rouncival" (an alternative spelling of
rounceval), meaning "gigantic", also derives from Roncevaux, either by way of a certain large variety of
pea grown there, or from a once-current find of gigantic
fossilized bones in the region. ==References==