Underused but delightful, descriptive words

tines, of a fork.
a neighbour, with a catering background !, refused to believe this word existed, and rang her son to ask him.
she said they were prongs. i said that was the sharp end. the tine was the whole limb, as it were.
her son trained foreign business people in english usage.
he confirmed the word and its meaning.
she was a bit miffed.

We have long discussions about the 'tines' of forks in our household.

DD has a phobia about eating with a fork unless the tines run in an absolute straight line. Everywhere she eats, at home of away, the fork will be picked up and examined to see if the tines are absolutely straight. The fork will be rejected if they are not - and discussion ensues.

It would never occur to me to describe the 'tines' as prongs, those are something entirely different.

I expect, M0nica that some places may call the tines "prongs" but to me it sounds clunky.

If you are designing or working with forks you will call the very tip of the tines "points" and where they join onto the fork, "roots" - there are lots of parts to a fork I seem to remember - but like you, I haven't heard the tines (or points) called "prongs" so expect its localised.

I think the indents between the tines are called "slots" by the way - not a very nice description in my opinion, and too rigid.