Runcible Spoon

I was talking in the driveway the other day with R. and E. and we were wondering together about the origin of the limerick. I did some research and found that the name "limerick" has to do with a nonsense joke about traveling to Limerick the place -- while the form itself dates from before the Victorian era. It was popularised during the age of Queen Victoria by a writer called Edward Lear.

Lear was the author of the well known, if not a little old fashioned, "Owl and the Pussycat." That poem is the origin of the phrase "runcible spoon." I think that runcible spoon is a nonce word -- a word made up for an occassion (in this case the occasion of the poem.) "They dined on mince and slices of quince/ which they ate with a runcible spoon." Some think that the spork is a physical manifestation of the runcible spoon -- though some think that a runcible spoon would be more like a grapefruit spoon. Incidentally, spork is what is called a portmanteau word -- a word made from two words shoved together, to evoke a combined meaning.

Limericks are usuallly humorous and have a strict rhyming format. Sometimes a limerick can be in rather poor taste, though we like the squeaky clean ones on pommefrits, like this one here:

That I become proficient at dishes
Was one of my mother's dear wishes
though I rubbed with the cloth
almost nothing came off
Which to my mother seemed awfully suspicious

(written by yours truly) (Its so easy! Write one yourself this weekend!)