Spurtle, Couthie Spurtle, Thivel, and Other Utensils for Stirring Your Porridge

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Katie Harris from Tallahassee, Florida.

Hi, Katie. Welcome to the program.

Thank you.

So I was recently having dinner with a friend, and she was stirring a pot of rice with a kitchen utensil I’d never seen before.

And it was a straight, like a straight, almost like a chopstick, but completely straight.

And it had a bit of a bulb on the end, kind of like how you might draw a cartoon thermometer.

And I was like, what is that?

And she said, it’s a Scottish spurtle.

And that word made me laugh.

I’d never heard it before.

I’d never seen one before.

So it became a bit of a muse for a while.

And then about two weeks later, my husband found a video on YouTube.

It was like a infomercial from the 90s from a woman named Kathy Mitchell.

And she was selling a whole set of Amish spurtles.

Amish spurtles look much more like a spatula, still made of wood, with a short handle.

And a bit of a scoop shape, but not as much as a spoon.

And I was like, that’s also a spurtle?

So I have a few questions.

One was, you know, what is the etymology of the spurtle?

And the other one is, is an Amish spurtle just a New World take on an Old World favorite?

There we go.

So spurtle, S-P-U-R-T-L-E?

Yep.

Okay, spurtle.

And there’s a question you asked in there, Martha, which I think we’ve had asked about spatula before.

It’s like, how can one term refer to so many different implements?

Yeah.

And so this thing that your friend was using, it was like sort of a dowel with a knob on the end?

Pretty much, yeah.

And was the knob in the whatever she was stirring or was it out?

Yes.

No, that part goes in.

And I think it’s meant for porridges and thick juice.

You just maybe, mm—

Yeah.

And it’s a Scottish-specific spurtle.

Yeah.

Yes.

I think I hear you.

I understand your confusion, Martha, because that’s a nonstandard spurtle as I know them.

There are a couple of different kinds of spurtle, as you said.

There’s the one that’s shaped like a dowel for stirring porridge.

And you’re right.

It’s a Scottish term.

As I understand it, it’s really good for making porridge because it helps you avoid lumps.

And it helps you avoid the porridge sticking to the sides of whatever you’re cooking in because of the shape.

I always thought the knob part went on top, though.

And I guess if there are spurtle fans out there, they will let me know.

Do you know, Grant?

Well, they’ll let you know I am not Scottish and I’m new to spurtles.

And my friend had this tool.

It was a gift from someone.

So it’s possible she’s using it wrong.

However, the little bulb in the bottom makes sense to me in getting in the weird little corners of your, I know a pot is round, but you have that edge that’s hard to get to, and I think this could do it.

So I’m Googling spurtle as we’re talking here and looking at the images, and there are a lot of types of spurtle.

I think people just like putting the word spurtle on anything.

Since Katie is spurtle curious here, we can tell you that there is a golden spurtle world porridge cup.

Do you know about this?

No.

Okay. Okay. Well, look online.

You can find the championship that’s held every year in Scotland, and the winner gets a gold-colored dowel like that, which is called a spurtle.

But what do they do to win it? They stir well?

Well, you’re supposed to stir clock.

This is a great question.

Thank you, Grant. Yes, it is a great question.

Yeah. Supposedly with a spurtle, you’re supposed to stir in a clockwise direction with your right hand.

I know that much.

I mean, with the stick in your right hand.

But that type of spurtle is also called a thivel or a thievel in Scotland, T-H-I-V-E-L.

And then the other one that you were describing, Katie, the one that’s more flat,

Have you heard the term couthy spurtle?

No.

Which could be my new stage name, I think.

Give it up.

That’s good.

Kuthy spurtle.

And all I know about that is that kuthy in Scotland means familiar.

It literally means known.

So kuthy spurtle is like your everyday spurtle?

Well, it’s got a flat blade, which brings us to one of the competing etymologies.

It’s really hard to drill down and find the actual origin of the word spurtle.

Some people think that it’s related to words like spatula and spade, you know, because it’s flat.

But then there’s another school of thought that is that maybe it’s formed by what we call metathesis, where letters shift places.

Because it might be related to the word sprit, like the bowsprit on a sail, on a sailboat is like a stick.

And they’re these words that are related to sprit that have to do with sticks.

So I don’t know.

That one feels more plausible to me.

Yeah, I think that one and the Old Norse sprarty meaning stick, rod, twig.

So this goes back deeper even in many ways than spatula, just depending on the path you want to take.

But it’s entirely possible that spirtle is influenced by both etymologies and both contributed to the word.

Because we do find a zillion different spellings and pronunciations of this word.

Including a spartle and spurkle and spurral and quite a few,

A spintle, quite a few others.

Yeah.

And you mentioned, Katie, an Amish spurtle,

Which is interesting because I’ve also seen the flat kind of spurtle referred to as an American spurtle.

So also known as a couthy spurtle,

But I’m sure there are a lot of, what do you,

What would you call a spurtle fan? A spurtler?

Yep. I would. I will.

So you take the spurtle, you flip your bannocks, you scutch your flax, and that’s what a spurtle is for, right?

Perfect.

Yeah.

Katie, I can’t wait to continue this conversation.

I know people are going to fill us in on it, so I appreciate you starting it.

I’m sure people know more.

Well, Katie, thank you so much.

We’re going to find out more about spurtle from our listeners, I’m sure.

Perfect.

Thanks so much for your time.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Katie.

Bye-bye.

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