spoon

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A utensil with a small bowl-shaped end and a handle, used for eating, stirring, or serving.

   He stirred his coffee with a small spoon.

2. 2
   noun

   The amount that a spoon can hold; a spoonful.

   She added two spoons of sugar to her tea.

3. 3
   verb

   To lift or serve food using a spoon.

   Sarah spooned some sauce onto her plate.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Spoon comes from an Old English word for a chip of wood or splinter, from a Germanic root also found in spick and span. During the Middle Ages it developed its familiar utensil sense, probably because spoons were commonly carved from wood or horn.

From Middle English spoon, spoune, spone, spon (“spoon, chip of wood”), from Old English spōn (“sliver, chip of wood, shaving”), from Proto-West Germanic *spānu, from Proto-Germanic *spēnuz (“chip, flake, shaving”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peH- (“chip, shaving, log, length of wood”). Cognate with Scots spun, spon (“spoon, shingle”), West Frisian spoen (“chip”), Dutch spaan (“chip, flinders”), German Span (“chip, flake, shaving”), Swedish spån (“chip, flake”), Norwegian Nynorsk spon (“chip, spoon”), Faroese spónur (“wood chip; spoon”), Ancient Greek σφήν (sphḗn, “wedge”)(though the connect…

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary