You have your typical fork, spoon, knife, and even the lovable addition of the spork but what would you call this three-pronged fork? A typical fork has four prongs, which has a history dating back to the 4th century in the Byzantine Empire. In the time of its debut, many considered forks to be a vanity, but these days you wouldn’t be caught eating your dinner without one. It eventually became widely used throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East by the 10th century.
A utensil with such a rich history and countless variations, but what do we call this iteration in the 21st century? As it turns out, this misshapen fork has plenty of different names and functions according to Elizabethtown College’s student body, and no one can agree 100 percent on either.
Fourth-year Professional Writing major Kyle McLaughlin boldly states that the utensil is nothing out of the ordinary. “That, in my humble opinion, is a fork. A dessert fork, according to the English Department’s Etiquette dinner,” McLaughlin said.
Third-year Professional Writing major and Assistant. Campus Life Editor Natalie Meyer claims this is a three-tined fork. “Or a trident, if I’m feeling silly,” said Meyer. “Not a ‘threek’ though, that’s ridiculous. That would only work if the actual utensil was spelled, ‘fourk.’” Other students agree with this utensil being a ‘trident,’ as Meyer puts it.
“That’s a trident. It’s used for seafood in fine dining,” Third-year English Secondary Education and Sociology major Caroline Czerpak said. Junior Japanese major Lux Hileman agrees, saying that this utensil should be used for seafood, specifically oysters, but still refers to it simply as a fork.
Fourth-year Professional Writing major and Copy Editor Mahli Rupp has very strong feelings regarding this utensil. “That’s a bad fork! It has three prongs and is too big! It would feel weird and can only hold three Kraft macaronis,” Rupp said.
Personally, I am fond of the name ‘threek’ for this utensil. While the name ‘fork’ comes from the word ‘pitchfork’ rather than from the number of prongs, you can’t deny the phonetic similarity and the hilarity of this naming convention. I have called this utensil a ‘threek’ my entire life, and have referred to two pronged forks as ‘twoks’ as well. I think that if we’re going to use fancy utensils in a formal setting, we should call them by silly names, if only to prevent people from taking themselves too seriously.
Knowing this, what would you call this three pronged fork?
