Such a Kerfuffle O’er a Runcible Spoon

[I don’t know why several paragraphs are jammed together.
I double-spaced. I triple-spaced.
But the paragraphs insist on bunching up
in an unattractive and almost unreadable lump.
My apologies.
I tried.]

Today I answer the question—Exactly what is a runcible spoon?

You no doubt remember that Edward Lear’s Owl and Pussy-Cat use one at their wedding breakfast:

Tricia Christensen, writing in LanguageHumanities, notes that

A Latin word runcare means to weed out. This word could explain the Dolumphious Duck’s fishing process with a runcible spoon. The duck is really weeding out the frogs from the water.

That should settle the question. But it doesn’t.

For one thing, it seems to me that eating mince and slices of quince with a runcible spoon would be difficult if not downright messy.

And Christensen notes that Lear also applies the adjective to a goose, a hat, and a wall. Wikipedia points to a runcible cat and a Rural Runcible Raven. None of the aforementioned, at least as we understand them, resembles a ladle.

“Despite the nebulous meaning of the words runcible spoon,” she says, “they trip off the tongue with delight and account for their many uses by other authors.”

So—what is a runcible spoon? It’s nonsense.

What else would it be? It comes from the brain of Edward Lear.

###

Except, to muddy the water:

Wikipedia dates publication of “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” at 1870.

Here’s a photo of a George III Sterling runcible spoon by Eley & Fearn, L0ndon, 1817

Maybe the item wasn’t originally called a runcible spoon. Maybe the adjective was applied post-1870. I don’t know.

More nonsense.