Coclear
(κοχλιάριον λίστριον). A kind of spoon which appears to have terminated with a point at one end, and at the other was broad and hollow like our own spoons. The pointed end was used for drawing snails (cocleae) out of their shells and eating them, whence it derived its name; and the broader part for eating eggs, etc. Martial mentions both these uses of the coclear (xiv. 121): Sum cocleis habilis nec sum minus utilis ovis.
Coclearia, spoons. ( Museo Borbonico. )
|