the.com/letter opener
A tiny ceremonial sword for the most dangerous foe of all: paper.
means A thin, blunt blade-like tool used to slit open the sealed flaps of envelopes without tearing the contents inside.
from A transparent compound of "letter" and "opener" — the name says exactly what it does. "Letter" comes from Old French "lettre," from Latin "littera" (a written character, and in plural, an epistle), while "opener" is simply "open" — from Old English "openian" — plus the agent suffix "-er." The object itself grew up alongside the wax-sealed and tightly folded correspondence of earlier centuries, when prying paper apart by hand was a clumsy, smudging affair; a dedicated little blade made the job clean.
- royal habit
- Aristocrats used jeweled ones to avoid licking glue
- survival skill
- Doubles as self-defense in countless detective novels
- design lie
- Most are blunt, relying on leverage not sharpness
- obsolete now
- Email killed its purpose but not its desk presence
tiffany letter opener — luxury silver letter opener sold by tiffany & co since the 1800s, still a bestseller
victorian ivory letter opener — antique carved ivory openers popular in 19th century england, now collectible items