# How widespread is "tine"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 12, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485 "2017-05-12T21:15:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/1 "2017-05-12T21:15:33Z")
Today, two English speaking Canadians (one from Montreal, one from Toronto) astonished me by never having heard the word “tine”. I won’t say it is the commonest word in my ideolect, but both my wife (from NYC) and I (from Philly) are certainly familiar with it. So I am curious now. Is it used, say, in Idaho? Across the pond. And it you don’t use it, what do you call the tines of a fork? Prongs, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![blueslipper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@blueslipper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blueslipper)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/2 "2017-05-12T21:26:12Z")
I know that it’s called a tine. But only as a trivia answer. Doesn’t come up in conversation. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/3 "2017-05-12T21:30:31Z")
Quite common, IME. **Mrs. FtG** watches a lot of cooking shows and I know many of them use the term, e.g., Alton Brown. Nothing regional or specialized about it. I’ve known it from a quite young age. You learn about forks, you learn about tines. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/4 "2017-05-12T21:33:00Z")
My tines be long My tines be short My tines end ere their first report (A riddle.) I think “prong” is probably more common, such as a “multi-pronged approach” and an electrical plug is described as having prongs. But I’m definitely familiar with it, since childhood. I was also that kid who liked reading a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/5 "2017-05-12T21:33:16Z")
If a couple of minutes ago you held up a fork to me and asked me what the little pointy things are called, I may or may not have stumbled trying to come up with it, but when I saw the word “tine” I automatically interpreted it to be the pointy bits on a fork. So the word is in my vocabulary, but not my active one. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/6 "2017-05-12T21:36:33Z")
I’ll add, “tine” dates back to the 12th century per Merriam-Webster while “prong” goes back to the 15th so “tine” is centuries older, if that helps. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/7 "2017-05-12T21:44:54Z")
In Texas - common enough that pretty much everyone knows what it means, would be my guess. Way more common that “aglet.” ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/8 "2017-05-12T21:45:46Z")
Tine is either the pointy bits of a fort, or the pointy bits of a pitchfork. It’s just not a real conversation hog… sort of like… bezel or chamfer, or cotter pin or nit or zygote. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/9 "2017-05-12T21:46:58Z")
I’ve used and heard it in conversation, and for forks, it’s a “tine.” I’m not sure I would call them “prongs” for whatever reason–it’s just a fixed phrase in my head, I guess. “Prongs” I think of as bigger, somehow. I realize the definitions are basically synonymous in this context, but that’s how my mind thinks of them. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/10 "2017-05-12T21:56:55Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > … Across the pond … Across the pond, one should know what a tine is, and that a fish fork has three of them, otherwise one would be identified as an irredeemable oik who would probably drink from the finger bowl and use ghastly words such as “toilet” and “serviette”. Slightly more seriously, “tine” is probably fairly well understood by the middle classes and upwards, and by crossword fans. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/11 "2017-05-12T21:57:10Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Today, two English speaking Canadians (one from Montreal, one from Toronto) astonished me by never having heard the word “tine”. I won’t say it is the commonest word in my ideolect, but both my wife (from NYC) and I (from Philly) are certainly familiar with it. So I am curious now. Is it used, say, in Idaho? Across the pond. In the glens, when night falls and the mist rolls in, we speak of little else. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/12 "2017-05-12T22:06:22Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I’ll add, “tine” dates back to the 12th century per Merriam-Webster while “prong” goes back to the 15th so “tine” is centuries older, if that helps. Oh, so that is what the youngsters call them now. I am from the Deep South and live in New England. I know what tines are and almost always have to the best of my memory. I think most Americans do. What else are you going to call them should the rare need arise? Those pointy sticks of metal? Canadian and American English aren’t that different. The OP probably just ran across some Canadians with a less than stellar English vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/13 "2017-05-12T22:18:20Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Oh, so that is what the youngsters call them now. > > I am from the Deep South and live in New England. I know what tines are and almost always have to the best of my memory. I think most Americans do. What else are you going to call them should the rare need arise? Those pointy sticks of metal? Canadian and American English aren’t that different. The OP probably just ran across some Canadians with a less than stellar English vocabulary. This Canadian agrees. Tine is, or should be, common enough in any English dialect. Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/14 "2017-05-12T22:21:27Z")
Some farm equipment have tines so I’d say it’s a fairly common term ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/15 "2017-05-12T22:43:59Z")
In the silver set we had when I was growing up, the salad forks had three tines and dinner forks had four and one must understand this. Otherwise, one would do a poor job of setting the table and mother would not be pleased. Seems like parents hardly teach manners these days, let alone the finer points of table settings. Now get off my lawn, you kids! ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/16 "2017-05-12T22:59:58Z")
We have a restaurant called Knife and/& Time here in Chicago. I haven’t been to it, though. [http://www.knifeandtine.com/](http://www.knifeandtine.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/17 "2017-05-12T23:34:16Z")
As a Canadian born in Toronto and raised in Montreal I certainly know what a tine is, but I suspect I could find several dunces who wouldn’t know the word. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/18 "2017-05-13T00:10:56Z")
They never heard that Jimi Croce song: _If I could put tine in a bottle…_ ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/19 "2017-05-13T00:27:28Z")
In my experience, tines are usually parallel and not widespread, at all. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485/20 "2017-05-13T01:15:16Z")
Does the river Tyne have a fork in it? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-tine/786485.md?page=2)