For me, it depends on the size. A tiny, thin piece of wood that you'd hardly notice is a sliver. A chunkier piece is a splinter. Splinters are more painful than slivers.
I'm from New England and have always said splinter. I never thought saying sliver instead was very common. Also, it sort of reminds me of people saying "on accident" instead of "by accident". Anyway, Merriam-Webster says: http://www.merriam-webster.com/medlinepl…
Main Entry: splinĀ·ter
Pronunciation: \ˈsplint-ər\
Function: noun
: a thin piece (as of wood) split or broken off lengthwise ; especially : such a piece embedded in the skin
āsplinter transitive verb, splinĀ·tered; splinĀ·terĀ·ing \ˈsplint-ə-riŋ, ˈsplin-triŋ\
When I was a kid (in Ohio), I never asked mom to pull a sliver out of my finger. No matter the size, it was a splinter, and she dug it out with a straight pin.
Boston: splinter, Alberta: sliver. Given that Canadians also call silverware "cutlery" and napkins "serviettes," I'm going to have to say they are linguistically bonkers, and go with splinter.
@22 um, guys, there are about five major linguistic variants in Canada, just in English Canadian. Calling what Ontario does "Canadian" doesn't make it so, just as calling what Quebec does "French Canadian" doesn't make it so, especially for the Bretons or the Winnipegers.
@25 Will, you are perhaps forgetting (what?! not possible!) that I'm originally from Cambridge, Mass., which bills itself as "the most opinionated zip code in the universe," so it is entirely predictable that I would generalize about Canada. After living here for 23 years, I can assure you that they are, in fact, bonkers, every last one of them, as well as sartorially inspired, and culturally enlightened. All of them. And they ALL say cutlery, too.
From PA, WA & VA, which negates the east/west divide, but I agree with Brendan: a sliver is small, a splinter is big. "Splinter wounds" used to happen in the Navy when boats were still made of wood; they're what occurred when a cannon ball breaks off leg-sized splinters of wood and drive those splinters into people with a lot of force.
Maybe people who've never had a real injury call slivers "splinters" in an effort to get more sympathy?
In my world slivers are smaller than splinters. Bark is notorious sliver source (super fine piece of wood that really only hurts when you run you finger across it). A splinter is a chunkier piece of wood.
I'm from NE, KS and CO - and say sliver. Also, if you can't get at it with tweezers, wrap some bacon fat on it with a Band-Aid and that'll pull it out by morning.
Weird all the east coasters here who say splinter. I grew up in CT and always heard and used sliver. That said I would know exactly what someone was talking about if they said splinter.
I grew up in New England, also, and it was a sliver. Also, thorns are prickers, water fountains are bubblers (or bubblahs), sprinkles on ice cream are jimmies and you go have a seat on your sofa after finishing supper at night.
Northern Wisconsin: I voted for "sliver," but I understand the language of "splinters" and "shards." Also grew up with "pop," "prickers," "davenports" and "bubblers."
Sliver? You must be kidding. In my six decades on this planet, I've never heard that word used when referring to a splinter. I'd use "sliver" for more than just a very thin piece of pie, but none of those usages would involve tiny pieces of wood stuck in fingers.
I'm from South Jersey, where no two of "merry", "marry", and "Mary" rhyme.
Sliver? ...Like in Magic the Gathering? That is definitely the only context I have ever heard for that word...
Born in New Jersey to a Pennsylvanian and Virginian family; moved at a young age to Arizona; moved after middle school to Las Vegas. Currently going to college (soon to be grad school) in Oregon. Never once have I heard such a thing called anything but a splinter.
If someone said to me "I got a sliver in my foot" I'd say "a sliver of what?" when you say "sliver" you have to qualify it with a material. It's like saying, "I just bought a kilogram" (a kilogram of what?"
If it's glass, I say "I got a sliver of glass in my foot" and if it's wood, it's always a "splinter"
I've heard splinter about 95% of the time, and sliver occasionally. East Coast, both sides of the Mason-Dixon. When I hear someone call it a "sliver," I know what they mean, but it still sounds kind of weird, since I hear it so rarely.
According to Oxford American Dictionaries, the Random House Dictionary, and every online definition I could find in the five minutes I devoted to this, both "splinter" and "sliver" can be either a noun OR a verb. I couldn't find any definition that designated either one only noun or verb, and all the noun-form definitions referred to wood as an example. They're both right. So, I have to disagree with Ingopixel and Geni: doesn't matter, neither one has a denotation that privileges one over the other as a noun, and the connotation of "splinter" being a verb and "sliver" being a noun, specifically in relation to wood and it getting stuck in fingers, is purely a question of dialect or preference.
Gotta go with what @66 said: sliver needs to be qualified with the type of material.
Also, sliver connotes that the object is curved and smooth, as pieces of glass, obsidian or flint would be if knapped from a larger piece. When you whittle a piece of wood, the wood comes off in slivers, not splinters. A splinter is jagged and broken.
It's obviously not an East Coast/West Coast battle. It seems like a lot of families in the Pacific Northwest and Colorado areas originally came from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Upstate New York etc. so I think it came from Great Lakes/Canadian/Northern New England lingo (with Chicago as the exception.) I grew up in West Virginia and had never heard sliver used in that context until I moved to Oregon. There it is extremely prevalent and no one knows what the heck you're talking about when you say splinter.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/medlinepl…
Main Entry: splinĀ·ter
Pronunciation: \ˈsplint-ər\
Function: noun
: a thin piece (as of wood) split or broken off lengthwise ; especially : such a piece embedded in the skin
āsplinter transitive verb, splinĀ·tered; splinĀ·terĀ·ing \ˈsplint-ə-riŋ, ˈsplin-triŋ\
Sliver is just a really bad movie from the early 90's.
We tend to call those shards, mind you.
Either way, don't splint it until you've pulled it out with tweezers or tongs.
Sliver refers to a small slice of pie.
Oh, and you folk that insist "splinter" is only a verb -- I must respectfully disagree. And so does Webster. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionar…
Maybe people who've never had a real injury call slivers "splinters" in an effort to get more sympathy?
As such they interchangeable.
Similar pieces of wood (or glass et al) are splinters or shards, so long as they're not under your skin.
I'm from South Jersey, where no two of "merry", "marry", and "Mary" rhyme.
"Come on Scooby-Doo, I see you... pretending you got a sliver
But you're not fooling me, cause I can see, the way you shake and shiver."
"Sliver," if referring to a splinter, sounds very old-timey, literary, or small-towny, to me. Like something outta Huck Finn or something.
Born in New Jersey to a Pennsylvanian and Virginian family; moved at a young age to Arizona; moved after middle school to Las Vegas. Currently going to college (soon to be grad school) in Oregon. Never once have I heard such a thing called anything but a splinter.
If someone said to me "I got a sliver in my foot" I'd say "a sliver of what?" when you say "sliver" you have to qualify it with a material. It's like saying, "I just bought a kilogram" (a kilogram of what?"
If it's glass, I say "I got a sliver of glass in my foot" and if it's wood, it's always a "splinter"
now is it called soda, pop, or coke?
According to Oxford American Dictionaries, the Random House Dictionary, and every online definition I could find in the five minutes I devoted to this, both "splinter" and "sliver" can be either a noun OR a verb. I couldn't find any definition that designated either one only noun or verb, and all the noun-form definitions referred to wood as an example. They're both right. So, I have to disagree with Ingopixel and Geni: doesn't matter, neither one has a denotation that privileges one over the other as a noun, and the connotation of "splinter" being a verb and "sliver" being a noun, specifically in relation to wood and it getting stuck in fingers, is purely a question of dialect or preference.
splinter
slippers
soda
Those saying 'splinter is a verb' as if that somehow means it can't also be a noun are weird. It can be two things.
They're splinters.
"Slivers" are small servings of delicious desserts that really shouldn't be eating, but can't help taking just a teensy piece of anyways.
Also, sliver connotes that the object is curved and smooth, as pieces of glass, obsidian or flint would be if knapped from a larger piece. When you whittle a piece of wood, the wood comes off in slivers, not splinters. A splinter is jagged and broken.