Got to thinking about this word after the new mantel thread, and on looking it up in Onelook I noticed the only definition in some of the major dictionaries (i.e. AHD) is:
chiefly Southern and Eastern; see mantel (Southern and Eastern US I'm assuming). Others describe the ornamental fireplace mantel. Now, I've always used mantel and mantelpiece interchangeably for the fireplace accoutrement, but I was never aware this was a regional dialect as some of the dictionaries seem to desginate (and which, as Bingley, seems to be a favored regionalism in Britain, or some parts of it, as well). But the main reason I grew inquisitive enough to research is that we've also come to use mantelpiece interchangeably with centerpiece to decribe the featured ornament or knic-knac which takes the center spot on the fireplace mantel. For instance, a ceramic Santa in a Sleigh sculpted by my mother when she was young has traditionally come to claim the center spot on the fireplace mantle at Christmastime, so we say that it's our Christmas mantlepiece. I can find no citations for this usage and was wondering if anyone else has ever used mantelpiece in place of centerpiece. Or, sometimes, in finding something striking while antiquing we might say, "That's a real mantlepiece!" The center of the fireplace mantel being the focal point of the room, "mantelpiece" is conferring the object a higher place of honor than as a "centerpiece" on, say, the dining room table. So there is actually a semantical nuance of differentiation here. But not much.
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Edit: I have again deleted the typoed omission of "points out" after "as Bingley" in the above post to preserve, for posterity, the integrity of the ensuing discussion and eatoin's dashing witticism as per Bingley as a favoured regionalism...very favored!
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