Difference between dinner and supper?

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Anonymous  #287313  Mon, 30 Oct 06 10:10 AM

Hi there!

Dinner and supper in our culture is considered the same. Supper refers to the meal before the actual dinner meal, which is usually a light meal like soup or noodles (appetizers).

Enjoy supper!

  
J Lewis  #287430  Mon, 30 Oct 06 02:57 PM
I've read through this old thread for the first time and found no mention of "lunch" meaning a mid-morning snack at work, dinner being at mid-day. Working-class, south of England.
We British have terrible hang-ups and invent terms like "evening meal". This got round the dinner/supper problem, or did until "evening meal" too was banned by "those who decide".
  
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MrPedantic  #287650  Mon, 30 Oct 06 11:43 PM

Please do, May L!

MrP

  
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Tam Sadek  #287654  Mon, 30 Oct 06 11:52 PM
We have:

Breakfast
Dinner (12-2pm)
Tea (around 6pm)

Mind you that's in the North-West of England, so we're not too bothered about being 'class conscious' as everyone 'south of Watford', thinks we're plebs anyway!
  
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MrPedantic  #287659  Tue, 31 Oct 06 12:04 AM

...long lunch break...

  
Formlit  #287669  Tue, 31 Oct 06 12:40 AM
LOL
  
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Anonymous  #295970  Tue, 21 Nov 06 05:02 PM
I grew up in a mining town in Nova Scotia and we ate breakfast, dinner and supper and had lunch (usually tea and toast) before we went to bed.  Now that I live in Ontario, I still refer to the evening meal as supper, though many born and raised in Ontario think of this a quaint east coast term :-), but I have lunch at midday.  When I go home to visit, I hear the midday meal referred to as both lunch and dinner.  Since people at home used to drink gallons of tea all day long, there was never a specific meal or snack referred to as "tea".
  
Wilder  #296388  Wed, 22 Nov 06 06:07 PM

Wow, a 2 year discussion on meal titles, how marvellous!

To add my tuppence worth, I am English (London), middle class, and have been brought up on breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Dinner is generally at around 7pm, so I fit into an earlier description of middle classdom there.

Tea is a drink, or a break from work at around 11am and/or 3pm.  A tea break is also often a polite version of cigarette break!

An exception is Christmas dinner, which is usually late afternoon/early evening.

As has been touched upon previously, at my school we either went to see the dinner ladies or brought in a packed lunch.  I can only assume from that that there must be some relationship between the name of the meal and its temperature...

I have also taken on what I assume is an Americanism, namely 'brunch', which loosely translated usually means I a)have overslept or b) have a hangover, and so breakfast is delayed until late morning.

In addition to all this, I have also been known to have 'elevenses' (a light snack mid morning), and afternoon tea  (usually when visiting a seaside cafe on the south coast of England, consisting of tea and scones.  I believe this is also available at the Ritz if you are passing by).  Although I guess these are just more elaborate forms of the tea break mentioned above.

I brief poll of my colleagues (all 2 of them) has produced roughly the same answers as mine... but I suppose the fact that we all middle class and from the south of England means that that was almost inevitable, wasn't it?

  
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MrPedantic  #296487  Thu, 23 Nov 06 12:00 AM

I'm beginning to think we all eat far too much...

  
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