The humble spatula's linguistic origins

It's richer than you might imagine

The humble spatula has a rich linguistic history.
(Image credit: Thinkstock)

In his 1989 movie UHF, Weird Al Yankovic has a fake advertisement for a spatula warehouse calling itself Spatula City, which has "thousands to choose from, in every shape, size, and color!" Really, it's just an excuse to say "spatula" again and again, because it's such a fun word. But did you know that spatula is a member of a family of at least six words that are related etymologically?

1. Spathe (rhymes with bathe)

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Neal Whitman is a columnist for the online resource Visual Thesaurus, and an occasional guest writer for the podcast "Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing." He teaches ESL composition at The Ohio State University, and blogs at Literal-Minded, where he writes about linguistics from the point of view of a husband and father.