I use “silverware” for metallic flatware and “flatware” for the plastic stuff. My mother has five sets of sterling flatware and one set of plated daily silverware. Generally we call it the sterling and differentiate with the pattern name. “The silver” (as in “please polish the silver”) is the silver serving pieces.
In Tennessee now, grew up in Michigan. I have one set of stainless. It’s just silverware.
StG
So it’s official: I don’t get out enough.
It could also be that I tend to use chopsticks most of the time and if I need a supplimental utensil, I’ll ask for it by name.
Another “silverware” no matter what it’s made of.
I might use “plastic utensils” if I’m trying to make a point, but if I just want someone to point out where I can find it, even those are “silverware.” I’d only use “flatware” if I was in a bridal department and searching for a gift for someone I kind of know. “Cutlery” is cooking knives.
I agree with all of this.
Cutlery = eating utensils in general
Silverware = I don’t know what, except perhaps a sterling silver cutlery service.
Personally, I use leadware.
I say “cutlery”.
“Silverware” just sounds American to me.
I thought “flatware” referred to the plates and dishes and stuff - you know, the flat stuff. I guess I was mistaken.
I also don’t care.
I’ve always heard and used “silverware” in various parts of the midwest. Occasionally “flatware,” but “cutlery” is usually said to mean knives and such.
And I just learned that there is such a thing as hollowware. Makes so much sense now…
Northern California checking in here. Silverware for anything casual, from plastic to the stuff we use for every day. Actual silver would be called “the Silver”. If asking at a resturant I’d ask for silverwear or utensils. I’d know what someone meant by cutlery or flatware but I wouldn’t use those terms myself.
Another vote for silverware - it’s been that no matter where we were living - Southeast, Midwest, South, etc.
And while we are on the subject of silverware…
WTF is up with the forks you get in restaurants these days? I’ve never seen such a misshapen mess. Either tines going n all sorts of directions or flattened out and useless. Is it from owners buying cheap crap? If so, why? if they spend a few cents more does it walk out the door? They’ll give you a steak knife the size of a machete but a decent fork…dream on
Toronto raised here, I use the term cutlery but most don’t know what I mean when I say that. Husband, California raised uses silverware which gets better results. If english isn’t their first language usually fork, knife gets the desired results.
Same here, although I’m a few years older. We had real, sterling, silverware when I was growing up, which was only brought out for special occasions, but we also called the everyday stainless flatware ‘silverware’. It is silver in color, after all.
I’d find it hard to believe that there was ever a time when most people had real silver utensils, but it does stand to reason that the terminology of food service and dining would have originated in the upper classes and filtered down.
Regarding so-called ‘silverware’, this sort of euphemistic way of referring to something as it used to be, or ideally should be, is not uncommon. IIRC the French word for ‘money’ is ‘argent’, or silver, and I don’t think there’s been any silver in French money for forty or fifty years.
Last time I had to refer to plastic utensils (signing up for a class potluck), I used “cutlery” and I meant that I would supply spoons and forks. I never imagined people would assume cutlery only means knives. Everybody else up here seems to call plastic utensils “silverware” so I realize that I am in the minority among my geographical peers.
Stainless home utensils are usually referred to by name as in “Could you hand that fork to me?” or “Would you like a spoon?” though if we are referring to a group of mixed utensils we do call it silverware. I don’t have any The Silver but I suppose I would call that silverware, too. In a restaurant I would ask for utensils or, very occasionally, flatware.
I’m in Minnesota.
I’ve lived in Texas all my life, and I use “silverware” and “plasticware” as needed. We do have a set of actual silver, and if I wanted to indicate it to my husband, I probably would have to say, “the actual, real silver silverware, in the fancy box.”
I don’t think I ever used “flatware” until this past spring, when I was shopping for a stainless steel set and needed to be specific. “Flatware” feels more like a technical term than a casual term.