My sister has started calling her evening meal supper ...

[TheFateofOphelia]

She was talking about having friends round for "supper" on Friday. I was puzzled as she knows, and I know, that supper is a piece of toast if you're feeling peckish at bedtime.

Apparently, now she's moved to Surrey she no longer has her dinner between 12 and 1, she has lunch. Now I'm ok with that but AIBU to draw the line at her having supper at tea time?

I was brought up having breakfast, dinner, and tea. No supper. I notice I've slid into "lunch".
I was also brought up sitting on a settee in the sitting room.
I now seem to sit on a sofa in the living room.
Still live in same area (NE England).

@ForCheeryTealDeer , Breakfast - food to set you up for the day
Dinner - proper square meal.
Supper - light evening meal.

Not pretentious at all.

OMG, yes this is another one!

Pudding to me is a hot sweet think treacle sponge, spotted dick etc. usually with custard.😋

Something like cheesecake to me is dessert but apparently that's common too. 🙄

Ah well, at least I know my place in life.😂

Supper is a bit of a icky word but it's OK for a late night snack/nibble (also both icky words although the ultimate ick is picky bits).
Round here (south east but not Surrey) it's lunch and dinner, unless there are small children involved in which case it would be tea.

Sounds to me like she’s suddenly trying to be posh now she lives in Surrey 🤣

Pudding is hot.
Dessert is cold.
Them's my rules 😁

Same here

With periwinkles or riparian?

Also yes to used to be settee. Now sofa.
Also used to be living room. Now lounge.

I was brought up in Surrey eating a meat-and-two-veg-type Supper at about 7pm. Now I live up North, it has morphed into Tea and got a bit earlier. You pick up these words.

Tea is eaten at 5.30 to 6pm

It’s not eaten later than that. You eat some strange hybrid. Maybe Tinner or Dea

To me, supper is either Wodehouse posh or Bennett northern.

I think the correct terminology is pudding is, sweet is cold and dessert is fruit or nuts taken away from the dining table but that was a long time ago in fairly grand houses!

Isn’t tea time 4 in the afternoon, when you have a mug of tea?

This happens when you move. I refuse to have a daily argument with DP/DS/local friends etc about what lunch and dinner are called.

I've been here so long now that I find it confusing when my family from home refer to lunch as dinner.

It's just how things are.

My Dad says supper and lives in Buckinghamshire, so only about a half hour drive South of the Midlands.

Airports and hotels have lounges, never one's home!

Supper sets my teeth on edge!
we have breakfast, dinner and tea here. Although it’s referred to as dinner if we’re going out or having people over…English is complicated!

And what about referring to pudding/dessert as "the sweet"? As in, "What are we having for our sweet?"

Is it a late supper at The Ivy after pre theatre drinks or perhaps Tete a Tete?

i don't really care what it's called but I resent being called pretentious for calling it supper.
If it was a formal evening meal, I'd call it dinner.

Tea can be a cup of tea and a cake at 4pm or a meal straight after work. It depends on the person.

😂

I have lunch and tea.
Born in Scotland and now in SE England.
I like the idea of calling tea supper because it sounds cozy/comforting.

(Also you know when you read a word too many times in quick succession and then it starts to look wrong? I now have that with supper)

I’m from NE Scotland and growing up, supper was your evening meal (around5/6pm). Dinner was your midday meal.

Still call them that now.

Born and raised East London. Always had it as breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper, supper being a late post-dinner snack/small meal.

When I moved to Kent it threw me off completely that they called it breakfast, dinner and tea! Even now it does my head in if someone asks if I would like to come over for dinner and I have to check if they mean midday meal or evening!

I think you just adapt to where you're living and the people you live near. Your sister is probably feeling a bit like a duck out of water at the moment, and probably needs support rather than mick-taking!