Meal names and times

[ODFOx]

I know it's been done to death but the issue has reared its ugly head again on another thread.
I am a Northerner who went to school in the south ( in case that affects anything).
Dinner is not eaten at a specific time of day. It is the largest/most formal/main meal of the day but can be eaten at any time.
All the other meal names are time dependent:
Breakfast (first meal of the day when you break your overnight fast)
Morning coffee/elevenses (obvious)
Luncheon ( always eaten in the middle of the day)
Tea ( at teatime: may be an afternoon tea and or a high tea)
Supper (last meal of the day eaten mid-late evening.

Not all meals are compulsory and some may be blended (eg Brunch) .

When lunch is the main meal of the day it may be described as dinner (school dinner, Sunday dinner, Christmas dinner). When tea and supper are combined into a main meal then a large evening meal may be described as dinner.

It may not be necessary to call any meal dinner if you choose to label meals based on time of day.

So I think that the divide between those who call their evening meal dinner or tea is less to do with geography and more to do with whether or not their parents had an early evening meal followed by a later snack supper or if they had a big meal and nothing later.

Does that make sense to anyone but me? DH says that I'm overthinking 😀 and that no one cares, but I've been on MN long enough to know that someone cares (apart from me).

I call lunch lunch even if it’s the main meal of the day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner for me; breakfast, lunch and tea for DH - we both grew up in the south but his parents are northern. My DGM used to hold supper parties - supper just sounds like an old-fashioned word for dinner to me.

Now:
Breakfast
Lunch ( because its a small plate or sandwich etc)
Dinner ( main meal)

But when I was growing up in the 60's and 70's it was:
Breakfast
Dinner (main meal) because my Dad used to go home from work for this and us kids had school dinners.
Tea ( small plate or something on toast etc)

I would second this, except that the main evening meal would always be dinner, never tea. Elevenses is the mid-morning snack. Then if dinner was earlier in the evening, or just if hungry, there may be supper a little before bed. Supper is essentially just a little mini meal shortly before bed. Might even just be a cracker and cup of tea.
Can you tell that my family really like eating 😂

So:
Breakfast
Elevenses
Lunch
Tea / High tea (depending on contents)
Dinner
Pudding
Supper

Plus assorted snacks

Man, I miss being able to eat a lot!

Breakfast ( somewhere between 6-8am)
Lunch ( around 12-1pm)
Tea ( somewhere between 7-8pm)

Snacks anywhere inbetween as required!

Northwest.

Breakfast (breaks the fast)

Lunch (big or small)

Dinner (the main evening meal)

(Coffee and Tea are drinks ☕️ )

Northerner (Yorkshire)
Breakfast, dinner, tea
All day, every day, forever more

I didn't break down:

Breakfast (morning, first food of the day)

Dinner (midday meal - sandwich, jacket potato etc, can also been a 'sit down' main meal and would still be called Dinner)

Tea (evening meal and main meal of the day)

Agreed

Northern

Breakfast
Lunch or dinner
Dinner or tea ( except fish and chip carry out which can be fish supper )
Supper ( optional - size and timing of previous meal depending)

Dinner - biggest hot meal , posh meal , late tea

Why is tea ☕️ used to describe a whole meal?

Breakfast, lunch and dinner for us.

I think because 'afternoon tea' and 'high tea' involve eating, with a cup of tea?
Then over time, the afternoon/high got dropped and late aft/early eve meal was called 'tea'.

breakfast
lunch
supper
i make no apologies,
i know we talk about school dinner and christmas dinner but we also talk about lunch break, not dinner break
tea is a cup of tea or cream tea includes scones with jam and cream
i dont mind brunch but rarely use the term

Here in Kent it's breakfast, lunch and dinner. My DM talks about supper, and I sometimes refer to " nursery tea" eg: early simple meal for children eg: dippy egg/ beans on toasrt etc.

My friend has gone a bit weird and started posting photos of her "cooked from scratch" evening meal on Instagram. And calling it "supper."

I'm hoping it's just a phase.

Because if they ate their last meal at 5, and it wasn't huge, say, they had a sausage sandwich - they might be hungry at 9:45 and don't want to go to bed feeling hungry, so have a piece of toast and butter.

Not everyone has massive meals or eats later or whatever. And also people's appetite varies day to day.

Sometimes I'll eat very little in a day, other days I'm eating non stop it feels.

Breakfast - morning
Dinner - midday ish
Tea - evening meal

I'm from the east midlands. Sometimes my grandmother would say "supper" to mean a later evening snack, which was something like a bit of bread and cheese and a biscuit.

I grew up in North Wales and we had breakfast in the morning, dinner at midday, tea around 5pm and supper which was a snack in the evening. My husband grew up in northwest England and I’ve now adopted his names for meal times. We have breakfast, lunch at midday and dinner in the evening.

Oh god dinner at 5pm?
How?

That must mean cooking at 4pm?
Very few people are at home 4pm if they work?
My GP would insist on eating at 5pm, finished and cleared away at 5.30
So joyless

Because it was originally used to say people were having a cup of tea, with a substantial snack (bread and butter or some cake for example) around 4-5pm. Which was small meal introduced because the hoi-polloy were having dinner later and later. So maybe had a small lunch at noon, bit nothing again until 10pm. Especially the winning who were expected to eat modestly.
This little snack meal was introduced.

This is why we still have "afternoon tea" as a thing where people have tea, sandwiches and cakes in fancy restaurants etc.

But the "tea" bit stayed as describing the meal which took place around 5pm.

My mum and dad always called our evening main meal "tea".

I have never ever called it dinner. Even when eating out I would not saying I am going out for dinner. I would just say I am going out for a meal or out to eat.

I can understand some people calling "lunch" dinner but not an evening meal

Who takes an hour to cook dinner? Every single day?? What are you making that takes such a long time??
My meals take maybe... 20 minutes?

Not everyone works 9-5.

Literally millions of people have their dinner at 5pm, because kids eat then.

What's so joyless at eating between 5-5:30, rather than 7-7:30?

I often eat around 5.30. I work from home 3 days a week and finish at 5, so usually I start cooking straight away. I eat my other meals early too as I like to go to bed early. I'm a lark, not a night owl! 😁