1014: runcible spoons: New Etymologies Sep 18, 2017

Etymologists are able to do a lot of work in tracing back the roots of a word, sometimes thousands of years. Indeed, it is in certain ways more difficult to find the etymology of newer words for a few reasons. First, while some words that are invented recently will draw from other languages like Latin or Greek, at other times it can be unclear where something was drawn from. Second, because etymology relies a great deal on looking at related words, either in the same language or other ones, without much time to study them, there isn't as much information for experts to use. There are also a few problems caused by the word not having as many uses in text on account of its not existing for a long, but even with words from the 19th century like 'runcible' as in 'runcible spoon' it can be difficult to agree on one etymology. One theory is that the word, coined by Edward Lear, comes from the much earlier word 'rouncival' that denotes a variety of pea, which could possibly explain why there is no word 'runce' to which the suffix '-able' would be attached, but it is also quite possible that the word was just made up to sound silly.