The Runcible Spoon

One of the myriad lesser-known London sights are the London Silver Vaults, located in Chancery Lane around the corner into Southampton Buildings. There you are guided down into the basement and through an impressive and massive strongroom door into a large subterranean room, the former Chancery Lane Safe Deposit, opened in 1885. This nowadays houses 29 specialist shops and has become one of the top addresses in the world to buy antique and contemporary silver.

It was there, on my hunt for an original and not too expensive take home gift, that I was made familiar with the runcible spoon. A small selection of curious silver spoons ending in several prongs like a fork had caught my eye. Upon my enquiry the dealer explained that they were “runcible spoons”, ideal, for instance, for dealing out pickles and the like. Further enquiry revealed that the adjective “runcible” apparently did not make sense but that was what the spoons were called. This was so English that I simply had to buy one ([Fig. 1]).

Fig. 1 Our runcible spoon (photo: private).

Mission accomplished, I then looked deeper into the etymology of the strange but well-sounding word. As it seems it was apparently coined by Edward Lear, the poet most famous for his nonsensical poems, especially limericks. It appears first in one of his best-known works, The Owl and The Pussy-Cat:

“They dined on mince and slices of quince,

which they ate with a runcible spoon.” [1]

Lear became quite fond of the “runcible spoon” and made a Dolomphious (?!) Duck catch spotted frogs with it. But also hats, cats, geese, a raven and a wall were characterized as being “runcible.” So there you are. The English would not be English if they had not contested the claim that Lear invented the word. A long debate about it has been going on during which an equally unusual but more explainable “spork” for the same gadget, a spoon-shaped fork, was unearthed. As there is, however, no further evidence for a noun “runce” or a verb “to runce”, “runcible” remains a stand-alone and Lear's creation the most charming theory.

Be that as it may, our runcible spoon has become a useful piece of household cutlery, and, of course, a phantastic dinner conversation topic. Get one while you can and join The Runcible Club!

Publication History

Article published online:
01 June 2022

• Reference

• 1 Lear E. First published in: Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets. London, 1871.. Cited in: Lear E. The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense. Penguin Books; London: 2002