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).

My parents called the evening meal "tea" and they were both born in London. DH's family all called it "tea" and they also were all born in London.

Most people I know call the evening meal "tea"

My DH is a Londoner so is his mother and none of his family call it tea.
I have only heard Northerners and working class Londonere of maybe Irish descent say tea.

It's breakfast, lunch and tea for me. Were I to refer to dinner it would be a meal in the evening.

Liverpool

Breakfast - first meal of the day
Lunch/dinner - eaten between 12 and 2 (use terms interchangeably)
Tea - evening meal regardless of what time eaten
Supper - light snack in the evening, usually only eaten by older people and children

Naw @Doggonames , supper is what you get from the chipper.😁

It’s a class thing <hides>

But if dinner is the meal in the evening, what is tea? A drink of tea 🫖 in the afternoon?

I too wonder whether calling your evening meal 'tea' is a class/upbringing thing?

I'm not from the UK originally (European) and at we were taught the meals as breakfast (morning), lunch (midday) and dinner (evening) meals.

Coffee ☕️ and tea 🫖 are drinks as far as I learned at school

Me and DH are both from working class families. Maybe all those who call their evening meal "dinner" are posher than us!

In the case of my family, lots of people had early morning starts (especially the ones who were posties). But mainly it was early dinner then supper as well because we are all hobbits, and given the choice like to eat at least 6 meals a day. We are also mostly all short and fat - these things may be linked 😂

That too lol

and someone else that calls it a chipper. I always get told it’s a chippy :s

@Doggonames 😂😂

Nobody even mentioned being diabetic to start with - that poster just assumed!

You're referring to me as the PP - I didn't actually mention shakiness or hypos though, simply that I wake up too hungry next morning without supper.

You also accused me of 'chasing carbs' and having cravings, neither of which are true.

You then went on to assume I'm diabetic (I'm not) because I said I was very familiar the action of insulin in regulating blood sugar.

Now you're questioning my scientific skills by using inverted commas.

All of this because I eat my meals at different times than you.