Editing Tablespoon (section)

== Dining ==
Before about 1700, it was customary for Europeans to bring their own spoons to the table.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} Spoons were carried as personal property in much the same way as people today carry wallets, key rings, etc. From about 1700 the [[place setting]] became popular, and with it the "table-spoon" (hyphenated), "table-fork" and "table-knife". Around the same time the [[Teaspoon|tea-spoon]] and [[Dessert spoon|dessert-spoon]] first appeared, and the table-spoon was reserved for eating [[soup]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Simon|last=Moore|title=Spoons 1650–1930|date=1987|publisher=Shire Publications|page=12}}</ref> The 18th century witnessed a proliferation of different sorts of spoons, including the [[Mustard spoon|mustard-spoon]], [[Salt spoon|salt-spoon]], [[Coffee spoon|coffee-spoon]], and [[Soup spoon|soup-spoon]].

In the late 19th century UK, the dessert-spoon and soup-spoon began to displace the table-spoon as the primary implement for eating from a bowl, at which point the name "table-spoon" took on a secondary meaning as a much larger [[serving spoon]].{{citation needed|date=April 2024}} At the time the first edition of the [[Oxford English Dictionary]] was published in 1928, "tablespoon" (which by then was no longer hyphenated) still had two definitions in the UK: the original definition (eating spoon) and the new definition (serving spoon).

[[Victorian era|Victorian]] and [[Edwardian era]] tablespoons used in the UK are often 25&nbsp;mL (about 0.88 imperial fluid ounce or 0.85 US fluid ounce) or sometimes larger.  They are used only for preparing and serving food, not as part of a place-setting. Common tablespoons intended for use as [[cutlery]] (called [[dessert spoon]]s in the UK, where a tablespoon is always a serving spoon) usually hold 7–14&nbsp;mL (about 0.25–0.49 imperial fluid ounce or 0.24–0.47 US fluid ounce),<ref>{{cite journal
|title=Syrup of ipecac dosing ... How much is a tablespoonful?
|author=Dean BS, Krenzelok EP
|journal=Vet Hum Toxicol
|date=April 1986
|pmid=2871653
|volume=28
|issue=2
|pages=155–6
}}</ref> considerably less than some tablespoons used for serving.