English

Etymology

Noun

1. An implement for eating or serving; a scooped utensil whose long handle is straight, in contrast to a ladle.
2. An implement for stirring food while being prepared; a wooden spoon.
3. A measure that will fit into a spoon; a spoonful.
4. A wooden-headed golf club with moderate loft, similar to the modern three wood.
5. A type of metal lure resembling the concave head of a table spoon.
6. A simpleton, a spooney.

Verb

1. To engage in petting, kissing or what is also called "making out". Etymology traced to OE word "spon" referring to fish reproduction.
2. to turn to port and starboard erratically for short periods of time, as a sailing boat does when heading nearly into a wind that varies direction slightly
3. to have a nervously ambivalent romantic rendezvous, as young people had during the age of chaperones, from turning one's head toward and away from the other person as the sailing ship did
4. to lie nestled together front to back in a manner reminiscent of spoons layed side by side in a drawer; usually has a mild sexual connotation. This usage is an example of a false or folk etymology in which the older verb form of the word was incorrectly confused with the more modern noun form referring to an eating implement, as a "logical explanation" since the original meaning OE "spon" (which later became "spawn") was unknown or forgotten.