Do you understand the term "elevenses"?

[redskyanight]

My company has decided to introduce a monthly "elevenses" where they will provide drinks and biscuits and staff are encouraged to come and talk to colleagues they don't normally speak to.

I was chatting about this at home and 20 year old DS said he'd absolutely no idea what "elevenses" were and had never heard the term before. DH reckons it is an old fashioned concept these days and will be incomprehensible to anyone under 35.

So, straw poll - have you/ your DC heard of elevenses and is this now an outdated term?

Yes & my children - mid teen to mid primary - do too.

I read Winnie The Pooh to them repeatedly when smaller (& they will ALL still sidle into the room to listen if I get the book out)
plus we're very familiar with hobbits!

I think it's gone out of fashion as we're a lot more relaxed especially at work. It used to be you sat at your desk working and you'd have tea and biscuits about eleven which would do you till lunch. Nowadays we're more relaxed and simply go to the kitchen and make a cuppa, wouldn't have been allowed in the past.

Temped for Pepsi years ago and they did free bacon baps for breakfast on Fridays. Temped more recently for Boden and they had an afternoon trolley with cakes (not free tho).

I know what elevenses are because I read Enid Blyton in the same way that I know what high tea, a tuck shop and lacrosse are. I have never myself referred to any mid-morning snack as elevenses although I did just about start office work in time to witness the morning tea trolley.

I'm in my early 40s and know what it is. I've only got my dc here at the moment who is 5yrs so doesn't know what it is. They know what snack time is though. I'm now intrigued so I'll be asking my classes at school on Monday.

I've heard the term, isn't it also the name of a brand of chocolates or something similar?

I'm 35 and know what it is. But I'm a Hobbit.

American here and our little ones know what it is… thanks to Paddington! I don’t recall when I first met the term, but I’m pretty positive my introduction would’ve had something to do with Tolkien.

I’m forrin and I know it from reading lord of the rings but never seen used in real life. Mid 40s.

ETA: for a long time, I thought it was a Tolkienism

Elevenses but at 10 o clock or other rough time when people down tools for breakfast/snacks/drinks. It's always been the name for the morning break.

When I did work experience as a teenager in a solicitor office, at 11 the whole office stopped work for ten minutes, made a cup of tea and opened a biscuit tin. As a fourteen year old it was utterly painful counting down the minutes (while doing something today’s teens would consider indescribably boring like sorting actual paper mail) until this ‘treat’.

I'm 34 and know the term, also remember nutri grain doing an elevenses bar type thing that I used to love, don't know if they still do those.

Elevenses is posh, we have baggin!

I’m mid-30s and have always understood the term to mean a light snack between breakfast and lunch, usually around 11. Not sure I’ve ever used the term or heard it used in real life though, I think it’s something I probably learnt about through Enid Blyton books as a child!

In your case I’d probably call it a Coffee Morning (1970s term) or Get Together (no food necessary).

Mid sixties here and most definitely heard of it. It is a break for a cup of tea and biscuits (usually no more than that) at 11am. I haven't heard it for a long time though and I've never indulged in said custom at home or work.

Sussex raised here, aged 40ish. I would say elevenses is a hot drink and light snack/small cake/pastry, taken between breakfast and lunch.
Similarly to how afternoon tea might be taken between lunch and dinner.
My 15yo knows what elevenses is, but mainly because Merry and Pippin refer to it in Lord of The Rings.

Do you then have a snack later in the evening? What do you call it?

When I was a child my grandma would give us elevenses (usually chocolate cake) when we went to stay.

Just asked my 16yo and she didn't know this word.

Very familiar with it. but I am old! Mid morning tea or coffee break with an added biscuit.

I’m 33 and have heard the term before but never used it in conversation and don’t ever really hear it, is it like a brunch?

We used to have elevenses at guide camp. It was just a beaker of juice and a digestive biscuit.

I’ve just realised that a Coffee Morning is a fundraiser, so scratch that!

old fashioned word
strange choice of word to use

Yes. But I think of hobbits whenever I hear or read the term elevenses 😂