When is dinner time

Commonly, people appropriate this word for an evening meal to make themselves sound grand. This was in London. Nowadays, my brother refers to his evening meal as 'dinner'; I still refer to it as 'tea'. I baulk when I read about 'supper clubs'. Seems a bit socially exclusive to the upper middle classes to me.

Before I moved to Canada from UK, I thought the mid-day meal was "lunch" and the evening meal "dinner. That ghastly N. American hybrid, "brunch," was a completely unheard-of word. When we had "tea," it was usually just that perhaps a cucumber sandwich or biscuit [never a "cookie"], too , but never "high tea," which was considered working-class by some people.

Canadians use both "dinner" and "supper," I think. Getting rid of these stupid class distinctions would be a help etymologically as well as socially! I grew internationally since my parents travelled a lot. Literally, I was raised in European, American, Asian countries as well as remote islands; therefore depending on your lifestyle and culture:.

If it was at pm it was company for Tea. If she had pancakes, eggs, bacon, coffee, tea, fruit punch at am, we were having Breakfast. If there were no breakfast items and only the soups, sandwiches or rice, potatoes, meats, we were having Lunch. If the Lunch menu items was being served at pm—we were having Dinner. If it was lighter fare at pm with friends—she was having Supper.

You pretty much had to look at the date and time, look at the menu, see who was coming or where you were going , and how you were dressed formal, semi-formal, informal, casual. Supper is any meal had from 4 p. And dinner can be seen as a special kind of supper that sometimes comes occasionally, a lot more food is served than at supper. I grew up in the midwest—small town, rural area in the 's. The meal in the morning was always breakfast.

The meal in the evening was always supper. The mid-day meal was either lunch a light meal, maybe a sandwich and soup or dinner large, like Sunday Dinner or Thanksgiving dinner. Morning tea and afternoon tea are also called "smoko" — particularly in more physical jobs, such as farming or construction. I don't think "supper" is very common, but when I stayed in a hall of residence at university in , they served "supper" at around 9pm.

From Maryland: I've always understood DINNER as a large in size and attendence , with a "main dish" usually meat with many accompanying sides, and possibly a formal gathering, main evening meal; and SUPPER as a small, intimate among family "single pot" meal like soup, casserole, or pot pie.

Sometimes supper would come after an early dinner like on holidays and would be made from dinner leftovers. Most days went breakfast—lunch—dinner, on weekends breakfast—dinner—supper, or breakfast—lunch—dinner—supper, or busy days out of the house might be breakfast—lunch—late supper. Dinner is a more formal term for the end of the day meal which usually includes the accompanying of friends, a date, business partners, or persons other than just family and usually included cocktails prior to the meal.

Cigars and Brandy is a time mostly for men after a dinner and is surely a southern term not used much at all anymore. In my travels around this country and much of the world and in my old age, I have come to agree with the "Humpty Dumpty" reference above. To add some more to the subject, in the Republican Party US ran the campaign slogan "Four years more and the full dinner pail. Clearly a successful national party would not be referring to what we now call a "lunch box" as a "dinner pail" if there was no general understanding of what "dinner" meant.

This suggests to me that "lunch" had not yet arrived as the usual term for midday meal in the US. And, the campaign could not have been aimed at the agrarian South, as the Republican Party had little traction there; the South was still solidly Democratic.

Also, this could not be a slogan to attract Western farmers, as farmers usually did not take their meals with them into the fields.

The "dinner bell" must have been ringing for a lot of people outside agriculture at the time. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Ask Question. Asked 10 years, 6 months ago. Active 3 years, 6 months ago.

Viewed 1. Improve this question. Jeff Ferland Jeff Ferland 1, 2 2 gold badges 10 10 silver badges 8 8 bronze badges. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. There's actually quite a bit of variation in different regions of the US. As I said, it's quite common to hear Dinner as the noontime meal in many areas of the American South.

These differences have tended to mix up and get confused as people from different regions have mixed, and I've noticed "lunch" used for noonday meals much more unilaterally by today's young generations.

Mitch: As an American, I'd mostly agree with Matthias that "lunch" refers to a noon-time meal and "supper" to an evening meal regardless of size, while "dinner" specifically refers to a larger or more formal meal.

That said, people often use "dinner" to refer to an evening meal regardless of the size. I think the usage is a little ambiguous there.

PS I've lived most of my life in Ohio and Michigan, maybe the usage is different in other parts of the country. When a kid we only used supper but now only dinner. My grandfather a farmer in NE Oklahoma would regularly refer to a large midday meal as "supper". Drew Well, according to the New Oxford American the source I used when answering above , supper derives directly from to sup , which is derived from the Old French super to suck, sip , which I would take to be the predecessor of the modern French souper.

Looking at Wiktionary, however, I do see the sourcing for soper , though I don't see a specific citation for that. To sup seems to have quite complicated dual etymologies on Wiktionary, so the full histories might be a bit too entangled to know for certain.

Show 3 more comments. Callithumpian Callithumpian That link needs to be in this site's 'tool box' along with the other dictionaries and etymonline and such.

In terms of those maps: xkcd. Amory yes, the first thought that came to my mind, before i saw your comment : — semantax. Amory: Thank you. I was looking to make the same point. And to point out that I see little in the way of a trend or takeaway from the figure posted here: each of the maps seems to be essentially the same relative distribution.

Robin Green Robin Green 3 3 silver badges 10 10 bronze badges. A funny article on the topic in question, which might provide deeper insight into the cultural differences involved.

When I went to Yorkshire last year in a weekend trip, I heard for the first time people referring to the noon-time meal as dinner and also to dessert as pudding "what's for pudding? Yeah, when at school, they were school dinners and we had dinner ladies. It makes sense because "dinner" is what you call it when you make an effort, whereas a sandwich in a box is merely "lunch". But it's important to be aware of the inconsistencies. Some people who typically call their midday meal "dinner" would, on a day when they have a light midday meal, call it "lunch" and call their evening meal "dinner".

But others would stick to their typical usage regardless of the size of the meal. IIRC at my school it was "school dinners", "packed lunches", but both were eaten during a scheduled time called "lunch break". Word of the Day goodwill. Blog Outsets and onsets! Read More. November 08, To top. English Examples Translations. Sign up for free and get access to exclusive content:. Free word lists and quizzes from Cambridge.

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