# "Dinner" or "Supper" / "Lunch" or "Dinner?"



## cave76 (Feb 17, 2014)

What time of day are these *served* and *called * in YOUR home?

As a kid the evening meal was always around 6 PM because my Dad  got home around 5:30 and it was called supper.  I continued calling it that much later in life although I started calling it dinner more and more. Don't know why. I still interchange them willy nilly.

The noon meal was lunch. Unless it was Sunday. Then it was dinner and supper was supper.


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## DaveSoMD (Feb 17, 2014)

Noon-time meal was lunch, evening meal was usually called supper, but not always...we used them interchangeably.  Sunday noon-time meal was definitely Sunday Dinner and evening meal was Sunday Supper.


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## Alix (Feb 17, 2014)

Noon meal is always lunch. Evening meal is either supper or dinner, depending on the mood of the person speaking. The terms are interchangeable for us.


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## pacanis (Feb 17, 2014)

Breakfast, lunch and supper. And here, too, Sun. after church we went out to dinner. Any other nightime meal was going out to dinner, whereas it was always supper if we stayed home... as far as I can remember.


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## Cooking Goddess (Feb 17, 2014)

Lunch is the meal at noonish. Like at Alix's, we will change up dinner and supper. It usually depends on the complexity of the meal. Potatoes and hot dogs is definitely supper, but a stuffed pork tenderloin with a Hasselback potato and asparagus spears with hollandaise sauce would be a dinner no matter what time you served it! We usually do reserve the term "dinner" for the more formal occasions too. It's never "Christmas supper".


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## Dawgluver (Feb 17, 2014)

Supper and dinner, I've always used interchangeably.  My Canadian mother felt there was a clear distinction between the two, but I never understood her reasoning.  DH always asks, "What's for supper?"  We go out for dinner.

Lunch is noonish.


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## Andy M. (Feb 17, 2014)

Lunch and dinner or supper.  

I believe the rule is:  If you have your big meal of the day at noon, it's dinner and the evening meal is supper.  Otherwise, the evening meal is dinner.


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## Aunt Bea (Feb 17, 2014)

When I was a kid the noon time meal was dinner and the evening meal was tea.  

Today I do dinner at noon and supper at night.

I agree with Andy, to me dinner is the main meal of the day and lunch or supper is a smaller meal.


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## cave76 (Feb 17, 2014)

I'd always wondered about 'tea' for UK people. I always thought it was tea (duh) with maybe some cake or cookies or a few finger sandwiches. Just to hold you over until a late dinner.

To add to the confusion, my mid-western farm relatives (that we visited often) would have a fairly large meal (meat, potatoes, cooked vegetables) for the men who had been working  hard all day. Then a lunch. Bigger meal. Then another meal around 3 p.m. Then supper at 5-6.

THEN before bed (which was early) a supper of warm milk, fresh from the cow, warm homemade bread, fresh from the oven to hold you over until breakfast at about 5 a.m. which was so huge I don't have the energy to type it all!

All this on a wood-burning stove by my 100 lb aunt! They don't make 'em like that any  more.

I think the in-between meals were called supper too. 5 meals that would feed me for almost a week!!!


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## Roll_Bones (Feb 18, 2014)

I told this story before, but this thread is where it belonged.

I was to pick up my car being repaired on Friday.  The mechanic told it would be done around dinner time.
I went without a car all weekend.


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## cave76 (Feb 18, 2014)

Roll_Bones said:


> I told this story before, but this thread is where it belonged.
> 
> I was to pick up my car being repaired on Friday.  The mechanic told it would be done around dinner time.
> I went without a car all weekend.



LOL-----that mechanic must  have a totally different concept of dinner. (Oh, but wait------ did he say WHAT DAY that imaginary dinner was?   )


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## Oldvine (Feb 18, 2014)

Mid-day is lunch, after dark is supper unless it's away from home or with an invited group, then it's dinner.


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## taxlady (Feb 18, 2014)

Andy M. said:


> Lunch and dinner or supper.
> 
> I believe the rule is:  If you have your big meal of the day at noon, it's dinner and the evening meal is supper.  Otherwise, the evening meal is dinner.


Pretty much how I understand it. I also believe it is dinner when you go out for a meal after a play or the opera (or host a meal).


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## pacanis (Feb 18, 2014)

And supper theater just doesn't have the same appeal.


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## menumaker (Feb 18, 2014)

I think that this is a hangover from Victorian times but as I know it is thus;
Luncheon 12.30-2pm (ish)
Afternoon Tea, eg. dainty sandwiches, fruit cake, French fancies or pastries etc. if one was 'At home' for the remainder of the day to see 'one over' until Dinner. 
High tea ( a slightly substantial hot dish such as fish or Welsh rarebit ) 5-6pm (ish ) taken if one was going out to the Theatre / Opera / Concert so would not be taking Dinner that evening.
Dinner 8pm ( ish ) If one was 'at home' for the evening so would not have had 'high Tea'.
Supper, later in the evening when one has returned from said Theatre, Opera / Concert  usually something informal such as Soup,cold cuts of meat, sandwiches, Cocoa and /or a nightcap eg. Whisky, brandy and Soda. 
This didn;t apply to all the population of course!! Some folk had 'dinner' around 11.30am because they had been working since very early morning, say 5am, and were probably famished by then. They had 'supper' when they finally got home exhausted, before falling into their bed only to do the same thing again the next day!


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## cave76 (Feb 18, 2014)

menumaker said:


> I think that this is a hangover from Victorian times but as I know it is thus;
> Luncheon 12.30-2pm (ish)
> Afternoon Tea, eg. dainty sandwiches, fruit cake, French fancies or pastries etc. if one was 'At home' for the remainder of the day to see 'one over' until Dinner.
> High tea ( a slightly substantial hot dish such as fish or Welsh rarebit ) 5-6pm (ish ) taken if one was going out to the Theatre / Opera / Concert so would not be taking Dinner that evening.
> ...



Good explanation, thank you. So you would have to make it clear if it was just an Afternoon tea or a High Tea?

Does anyone do that any more? Except maybe at Buckingham Palace?


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## menumaker (Feb 18, 2014)

One would inform one's cook if high tea was required .Yes, It is still possible to go for High Tea in some places. Very handy before going to the Cinema perhaps. These days it would take the form of something like Fish and Chips perhaps, eaten in as opposed to 'Tkae away.
Afternoon Tea is a delight and a treat,  still served in some Good hotels for instance. Think of the popularity of the TV series 'The great british bake off'.
Some of my British friends and I entertain our french friends to 'Afternoon Tea and they LOVE it.


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## cave76 (Feb 18, 2014)

I went to an Afternoon Tea in San Francisco many years ago at The Palace Hotel. It was absolutely delightful.

The Tea Room: Hotel

The one chance I had for tea at the Empress, in Victoria BC, they were doing some sort of documentary and there were large cables and TV equipment everywhere and just a few patrons.  Broke my heart. (Actually they should  have just closed it down for that day----- but that's history.)


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## GotGarlic (Feb 18, 2014)

The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Virginia, also serves Afternoon Tea. We went once with one of our exchange students when we did some touring there. It's a gorgeous hotel and the tea was wonderful, even though I don't really like tea  I remember I had peppermint tea and I did enjoy that.

http://www.jeffersonhotel.com/richmond-fine-dining/afternoon-tea


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## Mad Cook (Feb 18, 2014)

cave76 said:


> I'd always wondered about 'tea' for UK people. I always thought it was tea (duh) with maybe some cake or cookies or a few finger sandwiches. Just to hold you over until a late dinner.
> 
> To add to the confusion, my mid-western farm relatives (that we visited often) would have a fairly large meal (meat, potatoes, cooked vegetables) for the men who had been working hard all day. Then a lunch. Bigger meal. Then another meal around 3 p.m. Then supper at 5-6.
> 
> ...



Ahh, the tea issue!

In the UK afternoon tea is taken in the middle of the afternoon and consists of small sandwiches, scones and cake. It began, so it's said, because society ladies found it difficult to go from a light lunch at midday to dinner at around 8pm without sustenance. It began as a social occasion for the leisured classes but now it's an occasional treat enjoyed by anyone when on a day out or on holiday or if you want to have a casual get together with (usually female) friends.

And then there is "high tea". This is further down the social scale. It's a "sit down" meal in the evening between 5-7pm involving a knife and fork main course - eg ham and salad or a hot fish, meat or cheese dish, followed by cake and/or bread and jam and the ubiquitous pot of tea. The average working man took a packed lunch to work unless his work place had a canteen serving meals. (And whether it was sandwiches or in the canteen it would have been referred to as "dinner".)

Dinner was an evening meal for the upper and middle classes until the second half of the last century. Dinner would consist of possibly a first course such as soup, then a main course and a pudding (general name for a sweet course). Gradually "dinner" has taken over from "(high) tea" in many families. 

However, just to confuse the issue, Sunday, Christmas and school dinners are almost always at lunch time. 

Supper isn't usually a meal unless you are getting home very late, say from a late shift at work or the theatre when it might be a sandwich or something on toast. Most people use "supper" to mean a hot drink and a biscuit before bed these days. 

Of course, none of this is set in stone. For example in the post war period of social mobility there was a bit of a fad for people who had come to think of themselves as too posh for high tea but not posh enough for dinner, to call their evening meal "supper" but I don't think it's very much used in that sense these days.

There are certain references in the above that may sound a bit snobby but that wasn't my intention.


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## cave76 (Feb 18, 2014)

Thank you, MadCook. Nothing 'snobby' in there as far as I'm concerned.


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## Mad Cook (Feb 18, 2014)

cave76 said:


> Good explanation, thank you. _So you would have to make it clear if it was just an Afternoon tea or a High Tea_?
> 
> Does anyone do that any more? Except maybe at Buckingham Palace?


Your guest would know which it was by the time on the invitation.

 Of course, if you were mistress of Downton Abbey, the invitation to tea would be understood as meaning afternoon tea so wouldn't be necessary to give the time on the invitation.


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## Roll_Bones (Feb 22, 2014)

cave76 said:


> LOL-----that mechanic must  have a totally different concept of dinner. (Oh, but wait------ did he say WHAT DAY that imaginary dinner was?   )



Here in SC, dinner is lunch.  And supper is what I always knew dinner to be.

Breakfast - Lunch - Dinner. In this order.

Since i showed up around dinner time to pick up my car, I must assume the mechanic was already home eating his supper. I mean dinner....LOL


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## Somebunny (Feb 22, 2014)

For us, it's lunch for the noon meal and dinner for the evening meal.  We have been known to use dinner and supper interchangeably as my Canadian DH grew up with supper as the evening meal and if a large meal was served at noon then it was dinner.  This I believe is all a hold over from his family's farming days on the Saskatchewan Prairies. My Midwestern grandmother was also known to use supper for the evening meal.  I also agree with others, it's always dinner for holiday meals no matter what time they are served (excluding breakfast)   I think it really is a matter of region here in North America.  . I seem to remember this topic coming up before on DC  I still say I don't care what you call just don't call me "late" for it!


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