AIBU to ask which is the most neutral term dinner, supper or tea?

[ConfusedWife1234]

AIBU to ask which the most neutral term for dinner/supper/tea is? I am not a native speaker and I have been told that your usage of the word says a lot about ethnic ancestry, social class, if your are from the UK, US or another English speaking country, part of the country and so on. Which is the most neutral term and when do I use which one?

My God, now I'm being called TOM!!! (look carefully, so carefully!) ;-)

well always thought it said Tom when I've seen you posted before! God my eyes.... You could always change it! sorry about that Tom Torn

You'd never eat steak and kidney pudding for lunch ... and if you ate it a "lunchtime" you'd call it dinner and have on a light tea in the evening.

Nope, if I went out for a pub lunch and had a huge pie and chips I would still call it lunch. I never change depending on the size of the meal, it's about time for me.

Well you did mention about men and women.Freudian slip I guess!

To me tea is a hot drink and dinner is an evening meal, no matter what time it’s eaten. In this house we have dinner between 5 and 6 but if we had it at 7 it would still be dinner. I’ve never used the word supper in my life. I think calling a meal tea is a northern thing, and supper is posh or old fashioned

Easily done, Torn - if you feel hard done-by, spare a thought for Scotland's famous son, doubtless having to go through a lifetime receiving post mistakenly addressed to Robert 'Bums'....

Who's to say he didn't ;-)

we

I'm always hard done by. And when I'm not I feel hard done by for missing out!

Torn

@Automatic for once I can't be attacked for spelling/grammar, even after a few glasses of wine..... (not for the poem at least )

Great thread!

Such a way of taking the focus off the Brexit and the Trans. shite.

For now anyway!

Brilliant.

The meal in the evening is tea

Except that restaurants have dinner menus for the evening meal and lunch menus for the midday meal?

I'd love to see a restaurant with a 'tea' menu that wasn't pots of tea and cakes and small sandwiches, but the menu for the evening meal

Dinner is the main meal of the day regardless of when it is eaten

Hence a Sunday roast or Xmas meal that are during the day are Sunday dinner / Xmas dinner

Usually most people eat their main meal of the day in the evening. Hence why restaurants etc have dinner menus for the evening, and lunch menus for the daytime

Most people don't eat their main meal at midday. Hence why you don't pop out from work in the middle of the day to get 'a sandwich for dinner'.

Kids who have a hot meal during the day at school have school dinners served by dinner ladies
If they take sandwiches it's in a lunchbox, not a dinner box

Tea is a light early evening meal (5-6pm) that kids have if they're not old enough to eat dinner with their parents

Or for adults if you've had your main meal earlier

Morning meal - breakfast

Midday meal - lunch, unless it's the main meal of the day (in which case it's dinner)

Late afternoon / early evening (pre 6pm) - tea (for kids or adults as above)

Evening meal - dinner - unless you've had your main meal during the day. In which case if you have something light to eat during the evening it's either tea (early evening) or supper (late evening)

Clear as mud?

In my house:

Breakfast = what you eat when you wake up (12-2)
Lunch = a full 2 course meal that you have mid afternoon (2-4)
Tea = the food you have after lunch (4-5)
Dinner = the main cooked meal of the day (6-7)
Dinner 2 = is the food you have after dinner but before snacks (7-9)
Snacks = what you get after dinner (9-10)
Supper = food you have before you go to bed so you won't be hungry asleep (10-midnight)

Can you tell I have teenagers 😂😂

Oh yes, school food:

Hot school dinner or packed lunch.

Even worse, a Wedding Breakfast served at 3-4pm in a way of a hot 3 course sit down meal.

Breakfast, lunch and supper here - live in London. Tea to us is the drink.

You'd never eat steak and kidney pudding for lunch ... and if you ate it a "lunchtime" you'd call it dinner and have on a light tea in the evening

Its still lunch, and why wouldn't you eat it for lunch?

Might I ask you something: Are there people in Britain who have been given peerage for military achievement? Because that it was happened in a lot of other countries but I was ridiculed for saying people get titles for military achievement, so I thought maybe Brits were given titles for other reasons

The people ridiculing you are rather stupid, have no fear, you are entirely correct. Many peerages have been created for military achievement, such as Nelson , who was give a Baronetcy, and the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellsely), arguably 2 of the most famous military heroes of all time!

Tea is what you drink
Dinner is an evening meal served from anytime from 5 onwards.
Supper is a snack you have just before going to bed such as hot chocolate and a piece of toast.

You'd never eat steak and kidney pudding for lunch ... and if you ate it a "lunchtime" you'd call it dinner and have on a light tea in the evening

Its still lunch, and why wouldn't you eat it for lunch?

Because then you'd have to eat even more for dinner to make it your main meal.

Isn't lunch a bit lighter than dinner

Not a Sunday roast, followed by a crumble for pudding ...

But that's a dinner, isn't it? You don't hear people talking about "a roast lunch". It's always "a roast dinner". You can't have a Sunday dinner for lunch, then have a dinner in the evening. You'd not want to eat for a week afterwards.

The way these words are used in Oxford colleges will obviously be the most correct*. You can have breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The word ‘dessert’ is used in a very particular way. Dessert is taken in a different room and consists of fruit, nuts and chocolates, and a variety of after-dinner wines such as port, madeira, the red wine offered at dinner, and a white dessert wine. These days, only formal high table dinners for senior members of a college will include dessert, but maybe this is a relic of a wider practice in the past.

Pudding is a sweet course served at the dining table at the end of a meal, often made up of heavier dishes like spotted dick and custard.

Since high table dinners will have their dessert (see above) as a sweet course, the last dish they eat at the dining table might be a "savoury" (a lighter non-sweet dish like devils on horseback or scotch woodcock) instead of a pudding.

*Joking, obviously. Anyone else's usage is just as correct. The usage in Oxford colleges is interesting though, as it has probably remained stable for a long period of time.

Breakfast.
Lunch (the lighter of your two main meals) However, if you choose to eat your main meal at midday then you are dining rather than lunching and therefore eating dinner. (It's the size of the meal rather than the time that makes the difference.)
Tea, a drink with jam and bread or high tea if you dined at lunch-time.
Dinner when you dine and take the larger of your two main meals.
Supper, you sup when you've only had high tea, or after the theatre or if you're starving hungry at midnight.

This thread is giving me a great insight into why I’m so fat...

Love this thread! I think I’m middle class (ish) but from yorkshire. So I have:

Breakfast

Lunch (except on a Sunday which then turns into Sunday dinner if it’s a roast).

Tea (unless I’m going out to a nice restaurant in which case it becomes dinner. A pub meal or pizza express type meal would still be tea).

Supper is a snack before bed.

Nearly everyone I know (in the north) says tea for the evening meal. Dinner/lunch is more class driven imo.