Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Runco

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

RUN'CO. A weeding-hook (Pallad. i. 43. 4.), employed for rooting out briars and other stubborn offsets amongst the young crops, when they were being thinned and cleared out (runcatio). It was formed with a cutting edge and bent neck, like the falx (Isidor. Orig. xx. 14. 5.), and appears to have received its name from the Greek ῥύγχος, the snout of a breast and the bill of a bird, either in allusion to the form, or to the manner in which it was applied, of pecking and routing up the earth. In modern Italy the terms ronca and roncone are now used to designate a bill-hook.