Spatulas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A kitchen tool with a broad, flat blade used for flipping or spreading food items
2. a device employed in cooking to lift, turn, or spread ingredients
3. an implement utilized in various culinary tasks to manipulate food during preparation

Etymology: The plural here is simply the regular "-s" form of "spatula", so the real story belongs to the singular. The Latin "spatula" was a diminutive of "spatha", a broad, flat tool or blade, and that in turn came from the ancient Greek "spáthē", a broad wood or metal blade. The Greek word is the same root that gives English "spathe", the large leaf-like sheath around a flower cluster, and the old word "spauld", a shoulder blade, which is a doublet of "spatula" because both descend from the same source by separate routes. The sense of a flat blade for spreading or mixing was already present in Latin, so the kitchen tool inherits its shape from the original idea. Each step of the transmission kept the notion of something broad and flat, and the diminutive ending simply made the Latin version smaller and handier.

Synonyms: flipers, turners