spork

Cutlery seems predisposed to spawning portmanteau words, that is, words formed by combining elements of other words. One of the earliest of these was "spork," formed by combining "spoon" and "fork." The first-known reference to a spork was in the 1909 supplement to the Century Dictionary which claimed that the word was a trade name for an eating utensil similar to a spoon save that its bowl tapered into three fork-like tines. With a spork in hand, one can jab and slurp without wasting precious seconds switching from one piece of cutlery to another. Sporks are also known as "foons," a portmanteau word that began to crop up in North American newspapers in the late 1990s. (Admittedly, "foon" did appear earlier, in the December 24, 1993 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald, but only in an article in which the author pondered the existence of the word "spork" and the non-existence of the word "foon"). In any event, the American Heritage Dictionary now includes "foon" among its entries. In contrast, "splade" (sometimes spelt "splayd") appears in no dictionary that I can lay my hands on, but it does appear in at least one online cutlery catalogue, complete with a photo of the said item. The splade builds upon the spork and foon in that the one of its outer tines has been sharpened into a blade. On the Internet, there has also been some attempt to popularize the word "knerk" as a name for a combination knife and fork.

mark morton is the author of Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities (Insomniac Press, 2004). His most recent books are The Lover's Tongue: A Merry Romp through the Language of Love and Sex and The End: Closing Words for a Milennium. He teaches English literature at the University of Winnipeg in Canada.