cutlery

[Alison Murie]

On Sep 7, 2009, at 3:34 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <Mark.A.Mandel at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: cutlery
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>>
~~~~~~~~~~
Like Mark, I hesitate to use "silverware" for stuff that isn't silver,
but, inconsistently, I don't hesitate to call our formerly silver
coinage "silver."

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