To hate the term 'Tea'

[ditzyglamour]

I guess I know I am as it seems the majority use it. But to me, its dinner and growing up I can never recall hearing anyone refer to it as 'Tea'.

I just find it so flowery and annoying.

Got that off my chest now 😃.

Anyone else?

SuperBeagle: maybe I'm just knocking about in different circles. grin
Quite possibly - as I said, it was a working class area - not bogan, quite the reverse and actually quite aspirational, with quite a large Irish (second/third/ fourth generation) and, as I said, people from a non-english speaking background component which may have affected usage.

It's a Scottish thing. Always tea at home. But if you go out for evening meal, you go out for dinner. Lunch is always lunch.

Funny that the OP should see the traditional working class term as "flowery".

We have supper in the evening. Dh because he is middle class, me because I learnt English out of books.

Looking at it from a Downton Abbey perspective:

Mr Mason at Home Farm has tea in the early evening, possibly dinner at mid-day with the rest of the household.

Lord and Lady Grantham have dinner in the evening, particularly if guests are invited. At midday they have lunch(eon). If they've all swanned off to the Highlands and left Mr Branson alone, he probably has a solitary supper. It's not just about the time and food but also about the occasion.

The servants have supper. Having had lunch(eon) at mid-day.

It's regional.
MN has had the same argument about haitch.

Interesting reverse snobbery on this thread in parts. Not OK to sneer at northern or working class usage of tea for the evening meal but supper is twee, weird, try hard, snobby

It's regional. No quaqua this is MN. It's always about class.

If you have a sandwich for your midday meal is it still dinner?

Yes.

On a school trip would you have a 'packed lunch for your dinner'?

No, you'd have a pack up. 

What's the container you might buy for a kid to take their pack up sandwiches in to school called?

Dinnerbox?

Have we got our wires crossed? I was thinking of Harry and Paul's The Twos.

Yes we must have. Harry and Paul were not shown here (Australia), but I have seen some bits called "I saw you coming" and Michael Paine on Youtube. You've piqued my interest. I'll have to watch it.

However, I absolutely love "I, Claudius" and have watched it umpteen times. The "mosaic" credits have it spelt as "ICLAVDIVS" and whenever we referred to it, that was what we used. I don't know what it says about my sense of humour that I find bits of it so amusing. Probably says a lot about the skills of the writers and directors that they could make it so, when most of the characters are horrific or are being murdered. Then again, I love stuart MacBride's books - he manages to balance scenes of extreme gore with laugh out loud bits, without ever cheapening the tragic things he's writing about.

Yes derxa that seems to be true!

I grew up in sink estate in Edinburgh through to late 70's. For all our extended family it was breakfast, lunch, tea (if younger family members having last meal of the day) and dinner if indeed that was our last meal of the day.

Supper was just a word to me. Then I was in hospital for 2 months aged 7. Then it was tea in the ward and supper before bed.

We moved to Manchester & lived with my mum's sister. She invited us to her sitting room for tea promising us all Jacob's cream crackers. The table was laden with sandwiches, cakes,biscuits etc. But I was sitting excitedly awaiting these mysterious cream crackers. My brain conjured up all sorts of creamy delicacies. Imagine my sheer disgust and disappointment when a plate of cream crackers was presented? I picked it up, turned it over several times and started to cry. My mum whacked me on the back of the head and told me to behave. This thread has unlocked a childhood memory all because of the confusion surrounding meal titles! .

Yorksha She invited us to her sitting room for tea promising us all Jacob's cream crackers

I grew up in Australia reading a lot of UK children's books. There were always these references to Jacob's cream crackers, and like you, I thought that they would be some sort of cream, perhaps combined with custard, filled puff pastry delight (a bit like a Napolean). I was so disappointed when I tried them and saw that they were just a thinner version of (local biscuit) Sao.

Dinner is at noon. You don't have Lunch Ladies.

Pack up makes me cringe.

Tea is at teatime! Evening meal.

It's not a Scottish thing. I'm Welsh.

*Dinner is at noon. You don't have Lunch Ladies.

Pack up makes me cringe.

Tea is at teatime! Evening meal.*

So why do restaurants have breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, whereby the daytime menu is lunch, and the evening menu is dinner?

Why is it a black tie dinner and not a black tie tea?

I've been to many restaurants locally that have Dinner time specials for midday meals and Teatime or Evening menus for the evening.

Dinner menu for the evening sounds bizarre.

I'm with ProfessorCat (well, not literally, but I am in Wales). It's always been tea.

You don't have Lunch Ladies.

Actually in the south you do. At my school we referred to them as lunch ladies.

Breakfast
Lunch (hence LUNCH box & LUNCH menu's and LUNCH break)
Dinner
Supper is just a small before bed snack if needed.

Nobody i know would ever call it anything else, I'm Wiltshire born & bred!

Really? I've taught at schools "in the South" (I presume you mean England, as Scotland and Wales have South too ) and never once have I heard Lunch Ladies.

I've been to many restaurants locally that have Dinner time specials for midday meals and Teatime or Evening menus for the evening.

Dinner menu for the evening sounds bizarre

I have never in my life seen dinner time specials for midday food... it's always been lunch menu & main menu

Really? I've taught at schools "in the South" (I presume you mean England, as Scotland and Wales have South too confused) and never once have I heard Lunch Ladies.

We had lunch ladies, i left school in 2000

We have tea at teatime through the week, sunday dinner is a big roast affair, and we go out for dinner, but when we cook at home it's tea

Have you eaten in Wales? Pizza Hut even does a "Linner" menu.

Tea is either high tea or afternoon tea.

Lunch is lunch.

Supper is an evening meal, but if it's a formal meal it's dinner.

(Well in this fairly 'common' part of Kent, it is)

Lunch lady. Lunch lady is an American term for a woman who cooks and serves food in a school cafeteria. The equivalent British English term is "dinner lady"

Are you American?

"Kitchen supper" (and, Christ on a cracker, I can't even bring myself to speak the abbreviated version out loud ) should surely just mean either:

(a) Family meal / weekday, undemanding type of food. In evening.
or
(b) (when friends come for the evening), a low-key, easy meal; more about enjoying the company/ atmosphere/ laughs, than competitively out- ^Nigella_ing your friends.

But seems it's often a stealth boast:

"Binky's not expecting anything grand...I told her we were just having the neighbours round for kitchen supper".
[Or is the subtext: we're making it clear we could do upmarket in a separate dining room whenever we so choose?]

"Country Suppers" are a thing in these parts, I'm told. Meaningless. We live near the countryside...what else are they going to be, FFS?

Personally, I just swap between the three terms depending on how late I'm eating/ who I'm discussing it, or eating it, with. Keeps people confused.