Around here we prefer the term cutlery obviously but the discussion continues everyday about what we call those utensils that we use to put food in our mouths. What is it called? Cutlery, Flatware or Silverware? Isn’t Silverware supposed to be made of silver?
The above image is some flattened design flatware by Josef Hoffmann.
A great post at The Grammarphobia Blog talks about what is “flat” about Flatware and the history of the terms that we seem to use interchangeably.
According to an article from Ben Spencer of the Daily Mail Online: Despite centuries of tradition, scientists say that fine cutlery is made of the wrong stuff. Silver knives, forks and spoons make certain types of food taste unpleasant, they have discovered.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Did you know that forks were not used much until the 16th century? And that most food was eaten with fingers or a spoon until the 1500s? Spoons and knives have been around for a long time, forks not so much. Cutlery is a recent part of our civilization in the grand perspective.
Read this great article written by Robert Britnell for the Orillia Packet about how cutlery wasn’t all that common.
