
07/29/07, 08:30 PM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: western PA
Posts: 3,780
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Wisconsin Ann
ever wonder why a "spoon" is actually called a spoon and not "bowl on a stick"? I do...
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wonder no more............
The English word spoon derives from Old English spōn, meaning "chip or splinter of wood or horn carved from a larger piece, shaving," from a Proto-Germanic root spūnuz (cf. Old Norse spann, sponn "chip, splinter," Swedish spån "a wooden spoon," Old Frisian spon, Medieval Dutch spaen, Dutch spaan, Old High German spān, German Span "chip, splinter"), in turn deriving from the Proto-Indo-European root spe-, denoting 'a long piece of wood', probably in the sense of a wedge (cf. Greek sphen "wedge").[1]
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