WHich is Correct? Fly Tyer or Fly Tier?

[hap]

Tier drives me to tears...

An English Prof of mine many years ago said close calls should always go to the use less inclined to be mistaken... Yeah, he said it that exact way, too. Tier has other meanings.

[littlebrook]

In his "Summa Theologica" St. Thomas avoids that problem by addressing such practitioners as Fly Dressers. Nietsche, Berkeley and Hume followed suit.

Bill

[Donald Nicolson]

I prefer Tyer, Tier is the stage on a cake or block of theatre
seats.
As refers to King James, remember he was a Scotsman born.

[Eight Thumbs]

I take my lead from Fly Tyer Magazine and assume that they know how to spell the name of their own publication. Unfortunately my Spell Checker preferred "tier" and caused me great concern about the correct spelling. 8T

[lastchance]

Since "tyer" has pretty much one definition, "to tie," I would go with this one. The most used definition of "tier" is a section or level, etc. that's how I differentiate between the two for myself. I'm less confused.
Bruce

[kglissmeyer]

Kelly,

You're a top Tier Tyer.....'nuff said.

Dave, you are too kind, but thank you. I appreciate the responses, especially ohiofly's treatise . Not that I'm too confused, but I was working on a piece for a magazine and ran into the dilemma. It appears the two are used interchangeably, the jury's still out , so I think I'll just throw the dart...(leaning towards "tyer" though).

Thanks, everyone.

Kelly.

[Steven McGarthwaite]

Tier is also the use with a different pronounciation for such things as wedding cakes "3 Tier Cake" (Tier, rhyming with Pier). The Football Stadium has 3 tiers, from which the fans can watch the two teams playing on the field.

I prefer to use the word "Dress" as in a "Blue-winged Olive May Fly", Dressed by Steven H. McGarthwaite. May Flies is two words, Caddisfly is one word, should not use Mayfly!
Reason give to me by Chris Marshall, publiser of "The Canadian Fly Fisher" is that a Caddis goes directly from a "Pupa" to an "Adult, while a May Fly goes from "Pupa" to "Nymph" to "Adult"!

I go to my work shop to dress some fly patterns.

I dress a bare hook, turn it into a Fly Pattern. I do not tie a hook, instead I wrap the hook with thread and using the thread attach various material to the hook shank to create a fly pattern hopefully to fool the fish.

I tied my shoe laces, I tied my necktie, the game ended with the two teams tied, was out drinking last night and tied one on.

Then there is also the another word that is spelled differently but pronouced the same, and that word is "Tide"

Eskimos have 63 words that they use to describe different forms of snow! French have 12 different words for various forms of love.

[Bluegill222]

I'm not too crazy about the term "dresser" as it always makes me think of hooks with little tuxedos on them (I can never get the little bow ties right), so I too struggle with "tier v. tyer." Looking back through various things I've written, though, I seem to subconsciously favor "tyer". I think it would be a matter of picking one and sticking to it throughout the article.

[kelkay]

I usually use tyer. But sometimes I type tier. When you tie your shoes...is it tie, or tye? Good grief. That is why I go back and forth. I cannot seem to make up my mind on this either.

[FishnDave]

Interesting observation about May Fly vs. Mayfly, Steve. I did Bing searches, and came up with the correct definitions under "mayfly" (one word), but May Fly (2 words) seemed to only reference the title of an obscure movie. Perhaps popular usage has overruled correct usage on that one?