Picture a deep round bowl on the end of a long handle, dipping down into a hot pot and coming up full. The handle is long so your hand stays away from the heat; the bowl is deep so the liquid stays in. The word names that object, and it names what the object does. Nothing here is about eating — a ladle never goes near anyone's mouth. It moves liquid out of one container and into another, one portion at a time.
From the word’s history
The dictionary traces ladle to Old English hlædel, built from a root meaning to load or lay out — the same family as lade — with an ending that marks a tool. So the name says, more or less, the thing you use to load liquid out.
字典把 ladle 追到古英文 hlædel，字根的意思是「裝載、放上去」，跟 lade（裝載）同一家，字尾 -le 標的是「工具」。所以這個名字本來講的就是「用來把東西舀出來裝走的那個器具」，跟今天的畫面剛好對得上。
Wiktionary entry for ladle, packet source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:479747634 — 'From Middle English ladel, from Old English hlædel, derived from Proto-Germanic *hlaþaną (to load) ... equivalent to lade + -le (agent suffix).'