cutlery

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:34 PM -0400 9/7/09, Mark Mandel wrote:
>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

Well, if you want to get picky, it's not flat either, except for the
knives.  And you could think of it as silver-colored, which it
usually is, more or less...

LH



>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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