cutlery

[Mark Mandel]

Looks like I've been using "flatware" to include silverware, which I'm
reluctant to call that when it isn't silver.

m a m

On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 8:54 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> Here's what the OED says about "flatware":
>
> flat-ware, (a) 'plates, dishes, saucers and the like, collectively,
> as distinguished from hollow-ware' (Cent. Dict.); (b) (esp. U.S.)
> domestic cutlery.
>
> So by analogy from pottery to metal?
>
> As an aside, this makes me wonder what "foreign cutlery" would
> be.  (Purely rhetorical -- I do know they mean "home" as opposed to,
> say, street switchblades or former prison spoons.)
>
> Joel
>
>

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