Runcible

Common card · No. 337055

"Runcible" is a pseudoword invented by Edward Lear. The word appears (as an adjective) several times in his works, most famously as the "runcible spoon" used by the Owl and the Pussycat. The word "runcible" was apparently one of Lear's favourite inventions, appearing in several of his works in reference to a number of different objects. In his verse self-portrait, The Self-Portrait of the Laureate of Nonsense, it is noted that "he weareth a runcible hat". Other poems include mention of a "runcible cat", a "runcible goose" (in the sense of "silly person"), a "runcible wall", and "the Rural Runcible Raven". Various things have been named "runcible" or "runcible spoon", including a computer program compiler for an early programming language, a restaurant in Bloomington, Indiana, and a food magazine published in the District of Columbia.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Francois Thomas, CC BY-SA 2.0