Spatula

The story of the word

σπάθη was the flat wooden blade a weaver used to beat the weft down on the loom, and by extension any broad blade, including a heavy sword. Latin took it as spatha, which became Spanish espada and French épée, so the kitchen spatula and the fencer's blade are the same word at different scales. English had the diminutive form by the 1520s, first as an apothecary's tool for working ointments.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Latin → English

First recorded

1520s