one word for knife and fork of dinner

Re: one word for knife and fork of dinner

mumash wrote:

Is there a word with the first letter 'b' for knife and fork on the dinner table? Thanks!

I don't know of any.

Place-setting is a term used for the dishware, silverware, and glassware that is used by one person at a meal. I suppose a person could use the term place-setting to refer only to the silverware. I only mention this, because a "P" and a "B" can sometimes sound similar.

Silverware is the most common term used for eating utensils collectively.

The term 'utensils' has come to mean 'eating utensils' in common speech.

Unless there is some colloquialism of which I'm unaware, then the answer to your question is no.

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Thank you, Waldo_. My friend told me it's a word sounds like 'beer'. Is it possible that some people use 'ware' when they talk about 'knife and fork'?

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Maybe you are confusing knife and fork combo with a fork and spoon combo known as "spork" -which basically a spoon with a few prongs. You can spoon up soup or stab your potatoes.

You would not use just the term "ware" to describe silverware or tableware in English. It would not be complete. You could say I have wares to sell - meaning general merchandise.

If there is another term out there, I don't know it.

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Cuttlery?

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I think there's a difference here between British and US usage. In Britain we would say "cutlery" for eating utensils in general; we would say "silver" only if the utensils were really made of silver. "Silverware" sounds American to me, and I don't think anyone would call it just "ware".

By the way, I get the impression that Americans sometimes use "silverware" to mean eating utensils in general whether they are really silver or not (just as we say "bedlinen" for sheets even though they may be made of cotton or whatever). Am I right in thinking this?

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Cutlery would be considered items of the knife family or cutting utensils. Forks and spoons would generally fall into the flatware category.

Silverware is also used in Canada to denote eating utensils. Whether they be made of silver, nickel, tin or any other metal. This is a generic term that is used. Just as all tissues are called kleenex.

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bewter? tin , copper, and antimony alloy of dull sheen and lousy chemical stbility.
Also known as pewter

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Quote:

Cutlery would be considered items of the knife family or cutting utensils. Forks and spoons would generally fall into the flatware category.

That's interesting. Historically and etymologically of course that's correct - only cutting implements are rightfully called "cutlery" - but although here in Britain the manufacturers still make that distinction, nobody else does. In ordinary speech when we say "cutlery" we mean knives, forks, spoons and all. "Flatware" is a term you don't normally hear at all outside the trade context, and I think most British people would think of it as a (North) American term.

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syntinen

Welcome to a2k and I agree with you about the British use of the words - "cutlery" is used in an equivalent way to the American "silverware".

I can't think of a word beginning with B except the German word for knife, fork & spoon: das Besteck!

KP

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syntinen wrote:

Quote:
Cutlery would be considered items of the knife family or cutting utensils. Forks and spoons would generally fall into the flatware category.
That's interesting. Historically and etymologically of course that's correct - only cutting implements are rightfully called "cutlery" - but although here in Britain the manufacturers still make that distinction, nobody else does. In ordinary speech when we say "cutlery" we mean knives, forks, spoons and all. "Flatware" is a term you don't normally hear at all outside the trade context, and I think most British people would think of it as a (North) American term.

That is really true here too. Many people refer to the kit and kaboodle as cutlery. :-)

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syntinen wrote:

By the way, I get the impression that Americans sometimes use "silverware" to mean eating utensils in general whether they are really silver or not (just as we say "bedlinen" for sheets even though they may be made of cotton or whatever). Am I right in thinking this?

Discerning and humble Americans would refer to non-silver eating utensils as "flatware."

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My parents were always discerning and humble, and I've never heard of "flatware" before. They were also computer nuts, and I remember trying to figure out what the connection between "silverware"
, "hardware", and "software" was as a kid.

Anyway, even if it's not actually silver, it's silver-colored. And forks aren't flat. Wink

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I also didn't find a " b " word for either, but I found out the following,

knife, carver, whittle, couteau, slice, gully.

Can we use the above now ?.I don't know if the above words exist?!

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...

Quote:

Anyway, even if it's not actually silver, it's silver-colored. And forks aren't flat.

I've heard many people say, "Did they give you any plastic silverware in the drive-thru?

That indicates that the color silver has nothing to do with the term.

In restaurant jargon (USA), we often referred to the eating utensils as a setup. "Table 23 needs two setups and a cup of coffee." Setup could mean other things as well (i.e. in a Tex-Mex restaurant a setup is the chips and salsa and/or queso).

It was called a rollup if all the utensils were rolled in a linen napkin.

I think that this indicates that no strong term has developed. In other words, the terms we use are weak associations (setup, rollup), or they are accurate but uncomfortable in speech (eating utensils).

From each of these posts (and some pretty well-informed people included), nobody has chimed without some disclaimer. We all seem to acknowledge that we don't really have a pat answer to what one calls the knife, fork, and spoon (collectively) in a dinner place setting.

That might not be the type of answer we settle upon in most threads, but it might be the most satisfactory answer here.

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mumash wrote:

Thank you, Waldo_. My friend told me it's a word sounds like 'beer'. Is it possible that some people use 'ware' when they talk about 'knife and fork'?

Is is just possible? This may be a stretch but depending on what your friend was actually referring to, there is something that kind of sounds like beer. It is a fork, knife and spoon but not in the traditional singular sense. There is an item call a hobo set that goes by the name K-Bar. To me, this sounds like beer. Especially if there is some kind of accent involved. Anyhow, I thought I would provide this for what it's worth. A pic of this item is shown.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/Intrepid2/KB1300.jpg

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This is cool! Razz

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Sorry Intrepid, Ka Bar is a brand name and is associated with knives more as weapons than anything else.
Just thought ya might like to know.

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one word for knife and fork of dinner

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