To hate hearing the word SUPPER

[newnameoldme]

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!

UpsyDaisy123

I don't see why that's chauvinistic although I wouldn't still be married if DH had thrown a knife at me.

Am I missing something?

To me, supper just means normal evening meal

Dinner means formal evening meal

If I invite someone round for supper, they can expect lasagne or bangers and mash
If I invite them for dinner, there will be proper napkins and a starter

I'm with you, I hate the word supper too. It's an irrational thing, I'm sure people who use the word are perfectly normal nice people but to me it's always been a bit of a 'naice' word said by crunchy people. I call it tea though so I'm probably just a bit common!

Supper in our house is milk and a biscuit or crumpet at bedtime. DH is from a 'naice' sort of background, though, so it probably is a bit pretentious.

Supper is a cup of cocoa and a piece of toast and dripping to me, as thats what I had as a child!

And my mother wondered why I was fat...

Fecking MN random!reloadings - why's it always when you're doing things with links so you can't save the post? Grr.

Anyway, WRT the dialect side of things, there's a nice wee map in this article (with bonus ones for what people call small bread rolls & the childhood game where one person pursues the other players): www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/dialect-differences-show-north-v-5761126

This Guardian article, if anyone's interested, has various people's takes on the matter: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/aug/03/tea-with-grayson-perry-supper-dinner

For me it's breakfast, lunch & tea. It would've been a bit weird of me to start saying "supper" to fit in with everyone else at university. And pretty much everyone else did say supper - unless they were going out to dinner, or we had a formal hall. It's irksome having people leap about condemning your use of language (thinking particularly of all the threads on "how dare people call their parents something other than what I call mine?!") because it's different from theirs & they automatically read that as meaning One [pretty much invariably negative] Thing rather than allowing for the fact that even now language usage is complex & moderated by multiple factors. Grump.

Obviously we're all hiding who we are to some degree, but people shouldn't feel obliged adopt a different vocabulary "so they don't look posh". I mean, say "sups & nibbles" (or whatever it was upthread) at risk of being mocked, but usage of the perfectly ordinary supper shouldn't be/feel taboo. In exactly the same way I shouldn't be afraid of being judged for calling my evening meal my tea.

Picky bits, though, quite literally makes my skin creep. I have eczema and severe xeroderma and the phrase makes me want to scratch.

@ProudConservative

Yes, you are missing the part where PP's mother hurled a knife at PP's father.

The first time I came across supper used to describe a full meal rather than a slice of toast before bed, was in Nigel Slater's writing and then followed on TV by his mate Nigella.

I used to say "But a sapper digs tunnels" whenever I heard it but that's an accent dependent pun. I still don't know anyone irl who uses it but I've got over the culture shock element.

My friend consulted me once as someone she didn't know very well had invited her for tea and we ( both native speakers btw) pondered the implications. Language is interesting!

I used to say "But a sapper digs tunnels" whenever I heard it

I read – possibly on here –that Nigel Slater and Nigella in fact don't get on. Or maybe DID, but then fell out.

Brekkie
Dinner
Tea

Whoever mentioned Nigel Slater and the parmesan creamy onions, do you have the recipe? I could be a convert to supper if that was on offer.

ZebraOwl at Rachel Johnson and her "rough peasant food" and "country suppers". Mandatory Aga.

here, baked onions is recipe number 5.

I've just bought Nigel's Kitchen Diaries thanks to this thread.

In my mind it's a word used in Penny Vincenzi novels and by some people when referring to a small meal eaten between tea/ dinner and bedtime.

meh its breakfast dinner and tea here we have chippy teas[occasionally] not fish suppers.

squoosh, oh enjoy, it's a gorgeous book!

Supper when I was growing up was the evening meal. Became tea when I moved to Yorkshire.

I don't like it being used in any other context than a little snack like biscuit or cereal before bedtime....normal for chidlren.

MIL calls tea supper and it really annoys me. "Thought we'd have roast chicken for supper tomorrow night".
I just do not get it. It's obviously a local thing but also I think, bearing in mind that all of her children and husband and most of the country don't call tea/dinner, supper, she should stop using it .

Oh dear.....I think you might be my MIL madcatwoman!

For me: meals are breakfast, lunch and supper. Always have been.

Tea - something you have with scone and cakes at 4pm if you are into that kind of thing

Dinner - when you go out or have guests round

Would feel a bit wanky inviting someone for a "kitchen supper" as it would imply I had a big house and more than one downstairs room (I don't).

Am not fussed what other people call their meals and find translation fairly easy. If someone invited me round for my tea at 6pm I wouldn't expect cake.

altered I think I love you. How nice do those recipes look!

Growing up in the north I don't know anyone who says Supper apart from old people.

I think I'm going to make a few myself this weekend AndNoneForGretchenWieners.

Yay squoosh!

Me too, itsjusta.

But I am now prepared to accept that dinner can be called lunch. Maybe I will one day accept supper instead of tea.

So what did Jesus and the Disciples have to eat and when, on the last occasion they sat down together?

The Last Tea, surely?

I don't remember having an alternative word for "supper" because the last food of the day was tea. No "before bed snack" or suchlike!