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

[Einsteinnolonger]

as 'Dinner' and not 'Tea'.

Dinner is what you go out for, whatever time of day

Not at 8am it isnt, that would be breakfast, and civilised people go out for lunch at some time between 12 and 2pm, not dinner...

Dinner is an evening meal.

Supper is a snacky sort of thing usually during the 10 o'clock news.

And we have pudding, not afters!

Dinner is something you go out for.

Supper is at home in the evening.

Tea is either something to be drunk (and the type drunk will indicate the time of day: Assam for mornings, Darjeeling for afternoons or tis a meal taken late afternoon involving sandwiches, cake and tea as an inbetween meal when supper is to be taken later than usual.

Oh god - does it really matter? Variety is the spice of life and all that. Live and let live

Good afternoon ladies. Just taking a break before preparing dinner. This evening we will be having strawberries for pudding.

But for those Southerners who say breakfast, lunch, dinner / supper, answer me this:

At your DC's schools, What are the ladies who serve the midday meal called? :)
Lunch ladies or dinner ladies.

Rest my case.

I call my hot meal of the day (usually the last one) dinner.

So I have either breakfast, lunch then dinner. Or breakfast, dinner then tea.

school meals supervisors

Greythorne - they're called lunchtime supervisory assistants!

Ahhh, but then greythorne what the hell is a lunch break?

Ours school doesnt have "dinner ladies". There is luncheon and catering staff though.

I am Northern but now live down south.

I always say tea, even though we eat at 7ish

If we are going out/friends house I say Dinner

But what with all the wars going on, poverty, homelessness, etc etc It doesn't bloody matter

It is actually quite insulting to say "tea" or "afters" is wrong. It is right if you are working class and live in the north. Who is anyone to say that northern working class culture/language is wrong?

I ought to add, I am Northern, and while I was growing up, it was breakfast, dinner and tea. It only really changed to lunch and dinner once I moved down south.

I still like to wind up my southern husband by saying "what shall we have for tea", but he has got used to it now and doesnt rise to the bait anymore..

I always thought "dinner ladies" was an old and now insulting term...like "air hostesses"

Breakfast - your first meal of the day to 'break fast'

Lunch - your midday meal

Dinner - your evening meal.

Anyone who has brunch, tea, high tea, supper or a 'kitchen supper' is a ponce and should be shot.

And after your dinner you have pudding. Only pudding. Sweet/dessert/afters - all wrong.

Um its NOT tea though is it. Its food, not a chinese beverage.

DD has just finished her tea, as it's too early to be dinner. DH and I will have our dinner when the DCs are in bed. Followed by pudding, hopefully! That's how it is in my house so it must be right

Bah, I always called myself a "bar maid"... or even, jokingly, "wench" when I had some bloke telling me that the correct term was "bar host"... usually a middle aged do-gooder who'd turn letchy after his sixth pint...

DS just had his dinner... With a cupcake for dessert

It has been used in the north for hundreds of years. I'm not sure, but I think it is used because traditionally you had a mug of tea with your food, so it was called "Tea".

Tea is what you have at 4.00....light...like sandwiches and cake. Supper is an informal meal which you have if you're not eting dinner and usually comes later than dinner.

Why is the OP pissed off - that's what I want to know? I mean, why would you even care what other people call their evening meal.
For the record, I call it dinner when it is the main meal of the day, which it normally is. But why would I care if others choose to do otherwise?

Ahh. My mother was very northern. My dad was very southern/middle class... Mum used to drop the act when he was offshore and we'd have "tea"... But it was ALWAYS llunch with both of them