A few members of our family are afflicted with frequent bouts of spoonerism. Causing a lot of mirth and general joviality whenever it occurs.
For some reason the word spoonerism never came up until several days ago, and one of the children immediately asked if the definition was: a weird obsession that causes people to want to use only spoons to eat.
After choking back a laugh I explained the actual definition, but their definition brought back some memories.
Growing up we weren't allowed to use a fork to eat. It was considered prideful and worldly. It was a source of concern when my parents noticed LV always used a fork. Thankfully he had enough good qualities that they chose to overlook it without making too big a deal out of it.
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That is something I never heard. How interesting. Is there a reason that forks were considered prideful and not spoons?
ReplyDeleteSpoonerism. A new word for the day. :-)
Blessings,
Betsy
I suppose forks were considered worldly because non-Amish people all seemed to prefer eating with them. :)
DeleteI was curious too, but more from the practical side - if you use only a spoon, how do you eat meat? That is, obviously you could eat meatballs or beef stew with a spoon - but what about meat that requires cutting with a knife? Or was that not typically served? I remember reading somewhere that forks have never been part of Chinese cuisine because the idea with Chinese cooking is to have everything cut into bite-sized pieces before cooking - which certainly makes sense.
ReplyDeleteFresh meat, especially steak was not on the menu. We canned our meats which made it all quite "spoon-able"
DeleteDo any Amish communities use forks? I've never heard of such a thing as forks being worldly... Maybe cause boys like to poke each other with 'em.
ReplyDeleteYes. I was wondering too if it was just some Amish communities. Never hear of this one. Not sure what about using a fork would be prideful...
ReplyDelete