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?

ProfessorCat

At my current school we have a 'dinner man'. He's a chef, with kitchen assistants.

We're northern and we have breakfast, dinner, tea and supper(sometimes)

We call it "breakfast, lunch and dinner", supper annoys me for some reason, tea is just a light snack (sandwiches, cake) at 4.00 pm ish.

It's tea up North and traditionally eaten much earlier. We call it dinner now, having lived in the South for so long, but DH and I are both Northerners and can't stand waiitng until 8pm to eat. Much healthier to eat at 6pm then not again until breakfast. DC love it too

Longer commutes mean early dinner isn't an option for many. If you're not picking up from nursery or after school club till 6pm (and the parent not doing pickup isn't home till later) then sitting down to eat at 6pm is somewhat of a challenge...!

Southern (well, South West actually) here.
I've always said breakfast/dinner/tea.
Although it's always a lunch break at work....

Wow didn't expect so many replies!

Well I guess I'm not a very around the clock routine type of person.

Breakfast is the first meal I eat, lunch then dinner (whether that's at 4 or 9pm) if I had a light meal at 4 such as toast or a sandwich. I'd call it a snack.

Bridge- it just seems flowery to me. When I hear someone say they put their DH's tea on, I automatically assume they're an older couple.

Tea to me is in the form of a tea bag!

Chocolatestrawberries - I know I'm being unreasonable. But I'm hormonal and it bothers me far more than it should right now 😫

Formally- I know its regional BUT living in London all my life and only hearing it (more so now than ever) over the past few years has stumped me.

coolash - you say tea and dinner are different. But where I am the seem to have the same meaning. I give my kids dinner at anywhere between 5.30/7pm. So do my friends. They call it tea. I call it dinner

Don't get me started on supper!!!

Breakfast
Dinner
Tea

sqoosh- you would be surprised at how middle class it is to say 'tea' where I live. I'm working class. The school my children attend is very mixed in terms of class. It's the middle class parents/friends that use that term.

To the lunchtime dinner-ers...

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

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

Or in the office, would you refer to a meeting that takes place across the middle of the day when sandwiches are provided a 'working dinner' rather than a 'working lunch'?

I think this is just one of many, many posts demonstrating that some posters can cope with a flexibility of language and others can't (but still bizarrely seem to think they are in a higher social class, sorry whoever I quoted, I'm not especially picking on you. There are plenty of others)

School lunch/ school dinner was interchangeable at my north east of Scotland school. We had "dinner ladies"

At my son's (private school in Edinburgh) they provided school lunch. I have no doubt the ladies serving it were officially "meal administrators" in reality they were "dinner ladies".

"Tea" was and still is a main evening meal and I have been middle class my entire life. There was a period in the excitement of being grown ups when my friends and I would give "dinner parties"- now we are as likely to say come for tea meaning an evening meal.

We all know in a restaurant or a hotel you book "dinner"

Language is flexible - sometimes one expression is the most suitable- sometimes another.

Insisting that "tea" only means what you think it means and dogmatically insisting (as some, although not the poster, I have quoted) it is indicative of class- or that "you have never heard it used that way" doesn't make you posh or sophisticated. You just sound terribly parochial and lacking in imagination.

I'm from the south where we said dinner or supper but now I live up north it's dinner at lunch time and tea at dinner time. Doesn't bother me: when in Rome and all that. It's not twee, it's regional.

Another thing I suppose I find weird, is when people say that their children have tea around 4.30pm then adults have their tea in evening.

I understand that their kids may need to eat a main meal early as they go to bed early but I always gave my kids a snack after school (sandwich or toast) to keep them going so we could all eat dinner together in the evening. Whatever time that may be!

sqoosh- you would be surprised at how middle class it is to say 'tea' where I live. I'm working class

I'm middle class- possibly upper middle-class (oh I love these distinctions) in Edinburgh- a city where 25% of children go to private schools. "Tea" is an evening meal. A friend of mine is the daughter of a UN diplomat- she invited me round for tea last week.

Tea to me is in the form of a tea bag!

"Tea" in that sense is loose leaf tea bought from a tea merchant. I don't think I have ever bought tea bags.

It's breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper in this house. Always was growing up too. Tea is a drink you have with breakfast, again at 11, 3pm and during emmerdale.

Faithless- I dated a northerner. I appreciate it's the said thing there. But it's become very common in London. Never heard it growing up!

The use of "tea" may be debatable/regional, but having scanned the thread, as usual everyone is wrong about the general meaning of "dinner."

It's in the dictionary. Dinner is the main meal of the day. It's irrelevant whether you eat it at midday, in the evening or if you get up for it at 3am.

When I was at boarding school we had cooked meals at both lunch-time and in the evening. But only the lunch-time one included dessert. That made it the main meal of the day, therefore at school, lunch was dinner.

At home, from Monday to Saturday dinner was in the evening, but on Sunday it was at lunch-time. (Sunday roast, etc.)

Language is flexible - sometimes one expression is the most suitable- sometimes another. Exactly. I wouldn't dream of saying 'tea' = evening meal in SE England. But I would in Lowland Scotland amongst my farmer friends. Indeed the woman who helps me look after my sheep talks about 'tea' = evening meal and she's private school Scottish.
It's all about context.

Growing up in London with my scottish mother and grandmother we called it tea. Me and my kids still do. However my now ex inlaws who are northern and the most outrageous snobs and total knob jockeys said it sounded common and said dinner or supper. Go figure.

We have: breakfast (8.00AM) dinner (12.30PM) tea light (4-5PM) supper (7-9PM)

Breakfast, lunch, and tea. Dinner is what you eat in a restaurant. Supper is a snack before bed that you don't get if you didn't eat your tea