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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate hearing the word SUPPER

519 replies

newnameoldme · 10/05/2017 13:37

Even at my ripe old age I don't know exactly when or what it refers to.

It makes me cringe at the pretentiousness whenever I hear it used. Only slightly less if elderly posh person!

OP posts:
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7
Natsku · 12/05/2017 20:33

Supper is a snack before bed, sometime after the evening meal which is tea (Scottish dad, foreign mum, grew up in the West Country but before that they lived in Lancashire which I think is where a lot of their lingo came from). It was always breakfast, lunch, afterschool snack, tea and supper for us.

Sylvannas · 12/05/2017 20:38

What about 'din dins'? That's what we have in our house Smile

catsaresomucheasier2 · 12/05/2017 21:20

In my part of the world we have breakfast, lunch/dinner at midday, tea around 6pm and supper is something (some) folks have before bed. Each to their own I say Wink

tigerfly · 12/05/2017 21:54

We never use it, some of my posh friends do. When I was growing up it was a bowl of rice pudding or ready brek very late at night, a long time after dinner - and very rarely. Like the night the chimney caught fire and a fireman had to take me to the other end of the house.

accidentalbride · 12/05/2017 22:23

Is it not all just food? What to get upset about? It's just a word. Americans call lifts elevators and trousers pants. Still - just words!

Ticketybootoo · 12/05/2017 22:35

Where I come from it means a small evening meal and not a 'proper' dinner so nowt snobby about that 😁

Huldra · 12/05/2017 22:41

I've read somewhere that dinner refers to the main meal of the day. No idea how true that is and it's really not that important.
I grew up with school dinners at lunch, I was a 70s child and school dinner was the big meal. Then we had a tea, which was late afternoon. Supper was a snack before bed, toast or a biscuit.

These days I take Lunch to be midday. Then for the last meal of the day I would interpret the following as

Tea - late afternoon. Informal meal for the whole family or kids.
Dinner - As above. Or if invited for dinner. Or it could be more formal, or very Dinner Party you'd expect the whole works.
Supper - If invited for supper, it's an evening adult meal but you know the meal will be informal or simple. Maybe more of a group gathering.

The word Supper in the above does irriate me a little. It's not rational but I imagine Hyacinth Bucket going to loads of stress but hiding it under Just A Supper. Oh come for supper or We're going to have a Supper Party.

I often confuse my kids with the word Supper, meaning a small late snack. I've been doing it most of their lives but they still ask what I mean Confused It's not a word on their radar to mean anything at all.

MerchantofVenice · 12/05/2017 22:46

I'm heartened to see that most people agree that supper is simply a cheese and biscuits type affair before bed. That's fine.

It's wanky to call the normal evening meal supper. It just is.

I know I'm being unreasonable btw.

5OBalesofHay · 12/05/2017 22:48

Why does it bother you so much?

gemma19846 · 12/05/2017 23:14

supper is a snack before bed. My dc have toast or cereal.

Sparklyhousedust · 12/05/2017 23:18

I thought supper meant an informal shared meal as opposed to a more formal dinner.

5OBalesofHay · 12/05/2017 23:25

Quite Sparkly. Why is this an issue?

StarHeartDiamond · 12/05/2017 23:55

Why shared, sparkly? You can have supper on your own.

BeastofCraggyIsland · 12/05/2017 23:59

I'm from NI and 'supper' by definition would be a small snack before bed but it's not a word we ever tended to use. I have a real dislike of it now though as I went to vet school with a real yah type who had gone to Harrow (a fact he managed to drop into most conversations), who used to talk about all the important people that Mummy and Daddy would have around for 'suppah' and how he couldn't believe that the rest of us plebs didn't have similar 'suppah partehs'. He was a twat and the word, which I wasn't keen on anyway, was well and truly tainted by him. Wanky as fuck.

5OBalesofHay · 13/05/2017 00:21

Rude

5OBalesofHay · 13/05/2017 00:22

As fuck

anon1987 · 13/05/2017 00:44

Ooh I hate it too Confused
I used to work as a chef at a clinic and the staff would all go "when will supper be served?"
I felt like ramming their fucking supper down their throats!!

However I also can't stand

Veg
Sarnie
Spag Bol
Brew

Basically I can't stand nicknames.

Headofthehive55 · 13/05/2017 01:40

How rude of people.
There are different words around the uk for the same thing.
Three are different words used by different parts if society for the same thing.
There is no correct terminology.

nannieann · 13/05/2017 01:46

To me, supper is eating stuff I shouldn't just before I go to bed. The best "meal" of the day.

Blimey01 · 13/05/2017 04:49

DeeDooDee

If only, I would prefare that. She always had a thing about being posh. Unfortunately she interprets it by judging people by their jobs, grammar, accent, education......I don't see her very much Hmm

gribak · 13/05/2017 06:58

I grew up in another country where evening meal was only known as supper - not posh at all! I had never heard of "tea" as a meal before I moved here 24 years ago!

FKat2016 · 13/05/2017 07:25

I've googled smug Nige but still don't really get it. I don't particularly like him on tv- bit cringey and perhaps has a slightly odd relationship with food but I don't get smug and pretentious. A bit eccentric if anything.

He came from a working class background in the West Midlands, maybe 'supper' is more of a regional thing than him trying to be posh dahling?

derxa · 13/05/2017 07:52

I felt like ramming their fucking supper down their throats!! Grin

MerchantofVenice · 13/05/2017 08:01

Beastof I think my aversion has similar origins - the first time I heard 'supper' being bandied around like that was by some really twattish posh boys at uni. Bit unfair of me to dislike a mere word based on the twattishness of a few users, but there we are...

Dizzy2009 · 13/05/2017 08:48

I never heard supper used to refer to the evening meal growing up, it was always a cheeky bedtime snack. I then moved to live in London after studying there and friends started inviting me to 'supper', which confused me at first. But I never thought of it as an attempt to be posh, as my friends weren't like that at all. So yes, I suppose it does depend on your past experiences.