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I still cannot get my head around what is "lunch", "supper", and "dinner" - and how this was explained to me at school was different from reality, also dependin
by alex_akimov 2mo ago
I still cannot get my head around what is "lunch", "supper", and "dinner" - and how this was explained to me at school was different from reality, also depending on the country where you are in :-)
No English school teaches you this, only real practice.
- ccppurcell 2mo agoDinner originally had a meaning like "biggest meal of the day". That used to be midday, culturally shifted to the evening. In some places and some contexts the language followed but not in every case. In southern England dinner is typically in the evening but we still say "school dinners" for subsidised lunches and "dinner ladies" for the women who serve them. Supper has always meant evening as far as I know but referring to the evening meal as supper became a marker first of the upper class and then of pretension. Hearing someone say supper is quite jarring for me.
- onraglanroad 2mo agoI'm not sure the folks down the chippy ordering a "fish supper" were trying to be pretentious!
- wyclif 2mo agoWhen I was growing up, "Supper's ready" was a common phrase. I think it is more common in the Anglosphere. Of course, my family is of English extraction so that might be why.
- cryptopian 2mo agoWait til you find out that in Northern England, we call the evening meal "tea", not to be confused with "tea", the delicious leaf water.