Re: "Linen"

On 26 Apr, 22:38, Woody Wordpecker <exw6...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:54:52 -0400, "Maria C."
<non...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> said:

Woody Wordpecker wrote:
James Silverton said:

Despite the logic of your opinion, it seems a bit too late to
change a long-established usage. The Oxford English Dictionary
supports the extension of "linen" to include other fabrics and
goods made from them.

 3. collect.    a. Garments or other articles made of linen;
often by extension applied to garments normally or originally
made of linen, even when other materials are actually used.

Like the "plastic silverware" we might take for a picnic.

"Plastic silverware" is not a deceptive term. "Silverware" alone, in the
circumstances given, is not deceptive, either.

Circling back to the topic under discussion, neither is
"linen".  That's why I brought up plastic silverware as an
added example of the sort of thing we were discussing.

People have mentioned various possibilities for referring to
knives, forks, and spoons while avoiding the word
"silverware".  

"Cutlery" has been rejected because we don't often use
spoons to cut.  "Flatware" is under a cloud because spoons
aren't flat.

I suppose the cloud over flatware is stratus. The former Archbishop
Runcible (see Cantuar) ought to have an opinion on spooning, but is,
alas, absent. The Cutlers' Company in Sheffield should also have a
view on cutlery, but I can't even find a web site for them, though
there's one for Cutlers Hall which offers an Easter Egg Hunt, Win the
Wedding of your Dreams, and Brides Reunited. Sheffield, Sheffield,
can this be you?

How about "utensils", or more specifically "eating
utensils"?

Dull. And what is worse, we don't know where it ends. Those bendy,
snappy, plastic doll's tea-party pricks and paddles that airlines
offer to steerage class would be included, as would chopsticks and
cocktail sticks. "Knives-and-forks", mentioned by another poster
whose name is inaccessible to me right now, works if taught to a child
early enough, and "silver" does of course work for those who have
nothing else.
--
franzi
.

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