runcible spoon

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Related to runcible spoon: quince, Edward Lear

run·ci·ble spoon

(rŭn′sə-bəl)

Any of various spoons, especially a three-pronged fork that is curved like a spoon and that has a cutting edge.

[From runcible spoon, nonsense term coined by Edward Lear (originally appearing in The Owl and Pussycat (1871) in the lines They dined on mince and slices of quince / which they ate with a runcible spoon, perhaps inspired by rouncival, a kind of large pea, from the name of the Hospital of St. Mary of Rouncival, in London (in the garden of which the variety was first grown), from Rouncival variant of Roncesvalles (the use of rouncival for the large pea perhaps being influenced by the giant bones purportedly exhibited to pilgrims at Roncesvalles, ostensibly those of legendary heroes who died at Roncesvalles, such as Roland, or those of Sancho VII of Navarre, who is said to have been over seven feet tall).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

runcible spoon

(ˈrʌnsɪbəl)

a forklike utensil with two broad prongs and one sharp curved prong

[runcible coined by Edward Lear in a nonsense poem (1871)]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

run′ci•ble spoon′

(ˈrʌn sə bəl)
n.

a forklike utensil with two broad prongs and one sharp, curved prong, as used for serving hors d'oeuvres.

[runcible, nonsense term coined in 1871 by Edward Lear]

runcible spoon

- A three-pronged fork curved like a spoon and used as a serving utensil.