spoon theory

English

Etymology

Coined by writer and disability advocate Christine Miserandino in a 2003 blog post recounting an incident in which she explained living with lupus to a friend in a diner by gathering spoons from other tables to serve as visual props for a metaphor.[1]

Noun

spoon theory (uncountable)

  1. An informal metaphor for chronic illness or disability that uses "spoons" to represent the finite units of physical and mental energy that a person has available for daily tasks.

References
  1. Miserandino, Christine (2003) “The Spoon Theory”, in But You Don't Look Sick‎, archived from the original on 17 November 2019
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