to be pissed off with people who refer to their evening meal...

[Einsteinnolonger]

as 'Dinner' and not 'Tea'.

Can we talk about high tea and afternoon tea for a bit? I see people on this thread are conflating the two, but surely they're very different? Afternoon tea (or just 'tea' if you're really posh) is about 4pm, little sandwiches and cakes and pots of tea. Also what you get if you go for 'tea' in Claridges etc. High tea, on the other hand, although eaten at around the same time, is a proper, substantial meal that usually involves things like cold meats, pork pies, cheese, bread, salady things, and cakes, as well as pots of tea.

karma, some poncy sensible restaurants do offer 'puddings' rather than desserts.

Cos they are poncey karma

Agree with you there goingforgold. High tea is a substantial meal that can stand in for 'dinner' but it should involve a cup of tea.

We always used to have high tea when it was my dad's birthday because he loved it. Started off with something like poached eggs on toast, or smoked haddock, followed by toast and jam or scones and then cakes. Major carb-fest.

having read the op I feel inclined to say

dear sister, there are a couple of "wars" on

I mean, not quite wars.. but yknow what I mean

Hee hee, this thread has got me chuckling! Don't care if it's been done before.

I come partly from farming stock where meals were:
breakfast
lunch - cooked meal, followed by pudding (often hot) no later than 12.30, except on Sundays and Xmas when eaten at 1pm.
afternoon tea - quiche/cold cuts plus salad, selection of cakes and tea or milk at 5.30pm (sometimes high tea on a Sunday, esp if trifle involved)
supper - something light before bed, around 9pm.

Now, as an office-bound lazyarse who doesn't get home til late I have:
breakfast
lunch (sandwiches, soup or reheated leftovers but still lunch)
either dinner or supper, depending on when I eat and how complicated the meal is. Complicated or 7-9 = dinner, later or simple = supper.
High tea sometimes features on special occasions.

Oh, and never ever 'afters' or 'sweet'. Pudding here.

No wonder English is the hardest language. What a minefield.

I'm a working class southerner who has, breakfast, dinner and tea, we have afters rather than puddings. Tbf I don't care what people call it as long as it tastes good and there is plenty!

I from the North and used to have dinner at lunch-time and tea as an evening meal.

Now I live down't South with a Southerner and have lunch and supper instead.

Very odd now I think about it.

So if you have dinner at lunchtime, are you more likely yo use a serviette than a napkin?

Yes going being a northerner I always used a serviette until I moved down South.

Now I use kitchen roll

I actually think it's lovely there are so many words for the same thing.

Imagine if we all said exactly the same thing, in exactly the same accent. It would be so boring.

Tea is a drink that I have with my dinner, around noon.

I too am a northerner who now lives in the south. In our house, we have lunch and tea (I've brainwashed my southern DH!). But if I go out to eat in the evening then it's usually for dinner, unless it's quite early....

Def a north-south thing.

My mum still calls "lunch" "dinner" which although I must have done the same until I was at least 19, I can't get my head around now.

But consider that wherever you live in the country, schools have dinner ladies, not lunch ladies.

Don't they............?

As quick, aren't you sweet

But it is not tea- how odd. That is something you drink. I always find it odd when people call it tea. Do you just have a cup of tea?
Dinner or supper.

Technically, it's dinner if the table is laid before you arrive, and supper if it's not.

Low tea comes at 4ish with bread/cakes/scones or whatever and High tea is a more substantial meal served at around 5-6 o'clock, but without courses, everything on the table together.

I grew up in the North but have lived in London for 20 odd years. I get confused.

I have kids round for tea.

I might say to a friend "what did you have for tea?".

But I eat lunch and tell the kids that dinner's ready!

My grandmother, who was Irish, used to refer to 'the meat tea' which I think meant adding some ham to an afternoon tea. We eat dinner in the evening and tea is something to take in the afternoon, preferably with cake.

Dinner is the correct name, not tea, YABU! Dinner is used to refer to the largest meal of the day eaten, which is typically in the evening as opposed to lunch.

However, that said I have often had dinner at breakfast time ....bacon, egg, mushrooms, tomatoes, fried bread, sausage ....yum!

Off now to have ... Oh, coco pops!

I thought you went out for 'dinner', but stayed home for 'supper'.

Well no 2cats....people have "dinner parties" as well as "supper parties" don't they?

While we're at it, I loathe the phrase and the notion 'dinner party'. It makes my toes curl ? it just sounds so Margot from The Good Life. I never ever invite people over for a dinner party ? I ask if they'd like to come round for dinner (actually, I might sometimes say supper if I've been reading too much Nigella Lawson).

Surely 'dinner party' indicates that you have slaved for hours producing overly fussy dishes which you will feel compelled to describe in detail to your uptight guests before they are permitted to eat them? Everyone will sit where the hostess tells them, the husband will get drunk, and someone will be crying in the kitchen by 10pm.

Whereas supper suggests Nigella style hair tossing as you 'throw together' a complicated River Cafe-style menu, while your charming, laid back guests guzzle vino round your scrubbed pine table?

The conclusive proof lies in this:

Is it called "School dinners"?? Yes it fucking is. And I for one never ate at school at 5pm.

Dinner IS lunch. Tea is what you have in the evening. Case closed.

Ah, but at my children's school, one of the teachers does actually, non-ironically, refer to that meal as 'luncheon'

yabu and ignorant.