Do you call it Dinner or Supper--or something else entirely?

saschka7
saschka7 Posts: 577 Member
in Chit-Chat
Just curious....What do you call the mid-day meal and what do you call the evening meal? Lunch? Dinner? Supper? Tea? Are there any exceptions? And what part of the world are you in?

I live in the northern US but my family is from the South.

To me, 'lunch' is the mid-day meal for every day but Sunday, when the mid-day meal is called 'dinner'.
If it's not a Sunday, then the evening meal is called 'dinner' and is interchangable with the designation 'supper'. The evening meal on Sunday is just 'supper'.

Someone told me this makes no sense--I pointed out that no one calls it 'Thanksgiving supper' or 'Christmas supper'--and those meals are always (at least in my experience) served between 12 noon and 3 PM.

I've just always been curious about social customs.
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Replies

  • SkyVetis
    SkyVetis Posts: 28
    Im in the North East of England and for us the mid day meal is lunch or dinner, tea is the main meal(e.g. between 4 and 6) and supper a later meal in the evening after 7/8 usually.
  • selfsmarted
    selfsmarted Posts: 21
    It depends if its dinner 1 or dinner 2. lol im bulking
  • Dub_D
    Dub_D Posts: 1,760 Member
    supper at home, dinner at a restaurant.
  • Scottish_charlene_84
    Scottish_charlene_84 Posts: 986 Member
    Breakfast....lunch....dinner....supper. In that order :)
  • Louisianababy93
    Louisianababy93 Posts: 1,709 Member
    Breakfast,lunch, & supper.
  • belladonna786
    belladonna786 Posts: 1,165 Member
    Dinner! I hate the word supper
  • fullofsmiles04
    fullofsmiles04 Posts: 158 Member
    I'm with bella. It's definitely dinner to me. I hate the word supper!!!
  • stephdeeable
    stephdeeable Posts: 1,407 Member
    My best friend and her family all refer to lunch as "dinner" and it always confused me, haha.
  • dan95130
    dan95130 Posts: 78 Member
    Just curious....What do you call the mid-day meal and what do you call the evening meal? Lunch? Dinner? Supper? Tea? Are there any exceptions? And what part of the world are you in?

    I live in the northern US but my family is from the South.

    To me, 'lunch' is the mid-day meal for every day but Sunday, when the mid-day meal is called 'dinner'.
    If it's not a Sunday, then the evening meal is called 'dinner' and is interchangable with the designation 'supper'. The evening meal on Sunday is just 'supper'.

    Someone told me this makes no sense--I pointed out that no one calls it 'Thanksgiving supper' or 'Christmas supper'--and those meals are always (at least in my experience) served between 12 noon and 3 PM.

    I've just always been curious about social customs.

    These are the meal names I grew up with. It does seem to cause confusion so now I stick to lunch and dinner.
    One added thought, growing up I hated sunday dinner because that meant we were only getting two meals that day. I'd be hungry half the day.
  • buzzcogs
    buzzcogs Posts: 296 Member
    Dinner and supper are "sort of " interchangeable to me except supper is always a later meal. Dinner I think of as a mid-day to late afternoon meal and I think of supper as something later. This may be because Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas, holiday meals are always called "dinner" and usually around 2p at my house.

    During the week and weekend midday meal is called lunch if it's informal and dinner if I've done some real cooking and we have people over.
  • KerrieJane86
    KerrieJane86 Posts: 75 Member
    1st meal = Breakfast
    2nd meal = Dinner (some times Lunch)
    3rd meal = Supper

    :) It can get confusing when you ask someone to go eat with you and they call a meal by a different name.
  • lilmisfit
    lilmisfit Posts: 860 Member
    I'm with bella. It's definitely dinner to me. I hate the word supper!!!

    Me too! Growing up, that's what my parents called it and I hated it. It is most definitely dinner.
  • writemusic4him
    writemusic4him Posts: 312 Member
    Growing up: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
    My mom growing up (German immigrants): Breakfast, Dinner, Supper

    I get confused every time I visit that side of the family :)
  • ThePersnicketyOtter
    ThePersnicketyOtter Posts: 147 Member
    Food. :P

    No, but really. Morning, breakfast. Midday, lunch. Evening, either, but mostly just "food"
  • acuratlsd
    acuratlsd Posts: 228
    Growing up: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
    My mom growing up (German immigrants): Breakfast, Dinner, Supper

    I get confused every time I visit that side of the family :)

    No worries I am right there with you. My family is from Michigan and I am here in North Carolina. Trust me there are a few phases and words they use up there that confuse me....

    The big one is they will say the whole word out "Soda Pop" we just call it Soda here.


    My parents never really referred it. I think they mentioned it as 6-9 Breakfast 9-12 Brunch 11-1 Lunch 3-5 Early Dinner 5-7 Dinner 7-9 Late Dinner

    Usually when I was younger they just say "Come get your damn food, its ready!"
  • 3foldchord
    3foldchord Posts: 2,918 Member
    I was brought up that it is 'dinner' except on Sunday when it was "supper" and more like a Big, Later Lunch.
  • dakitten2
    dakitten2 Posts: 888 Member
    I'm from Kentucky and I say lunch for noontime and dinner for the evening meal. My family says dinner at noon and supper at evening. So we are always confused when someone says let's go out for dinner! LOL
  • acuratlsd
    acuratlsd Posts: 228
    I'm from Kentucky and I say lunch for noontime and dinner for the evening meal. My family says dinner at noon and supper at evening. So we are always confused when someone says let's go out for dinner! LOL

    How we know is... If we just got up.. Its Breakfast.... It its still Daylight, its Lunch, if the sun is going down or has went down, its dinner....
  • madelonism
    madelonism Posts: 292 Member
    Growing up: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
    My mom growing up (German immigrants): Breakfast, Dinner, Supper

    I get confused every time I visit that side of the family :)

    No worries I am right there with you. My family is from Michigan and I am here in North Carolina. Trust me there are a few phases and words they use up there that confuse me....

    The big one is they will say the whole word out "Soda Pop" we just call it Soda here.


    My parents never really referred it. I think they mentioned it as 6-9 Breakfast 9-12 Brunch 11-1 Lunch 3-5 Early Dinner 5-7 Dinner 7-9 Late Dinner

    Usually when I was younger they just say "Come get your damn food, its ready!"

    my cousin from California was always so confused when i said "pop" he says soda and thought i ment popcorn lol. im from oregon.
  • shinkalork
    shinkalork Posts: 815 Member
    breakfast, lunch , Dinner or supper (both can be used) I use dinner here on the website but I say supper when i talk lol
  • kimmiedunne
    kimmiedunne Posts: 82 Member
    When I worked in a nursing home it was breakfast, dinner, and supper - dinner (the midday meal) was the main meal of the day. I do breakfast, lunch, and dinner though! :)
  • 2Bgoddess
    2Bgoddess Posts: 1,096 Member
    breakfast, lunch, supper. except on fancy holidays, then it's brunch, munch time, and dinner.
  • bsuew
    bsuew Posts: 628 Member
    Breakfast lunch and supper
  • Contrarian
    Contrarian Posts: 8,138 Member
    Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

    When I was in England, though, dinner was "tea" and dessert was "pudding". Cute as hell.
  • erindh87
    erindh87 Posts: 94
    Growing up it was Breakfast, Lunch, and Supper. Dinner was reserved for holiday meals that we had around 3ish (Thanksgivings, Christmas, Easter, etc.)

    In college, my group of friends all said Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. SInce then, I've used dinner instead of supper.
  • acuratlsd
    acuratlsd Posts: 228
    The only time I heard supper in my family is when they were referring to the "Last Supper"
  • angimac
    angimac Posts: 145 Member
    Southern North Carolina, USA born and raised...

    For those evening meals, if I'm having a home cooked meal, no matter whose home it was cooked in, it's supper. If I'm going out to a restaurant, it's dinner. Which is funny, because even in deciding to go out, it's usually prefaced with "what do you want for supper?"

    But, yeah, those holiday meals are usually referred to as dinner. Then again, they aren't eaten at lunch time, nor supper time...

    Brunch is one of those meals I've never had in my life.
  • acuratlsd
    acuratlsd Posts: 228
    Southern North Carolina, USA born and raised...

    For those evening meals, if I'm having a home cooked meal, no matter whose home it was cooked in, it's supper. If I'm going out to a restaurant, it's dinner. Which is funny, because even in deciding to go out, it's usually prefaced with "what do you want for supper?"

    But, yeah, those holiday meals are usually referred to as dinner. Then again, they aren't eaten at lunch time, nor supper time...

    Brunch is one of those meals I've never had in my life.

    I got lots of different things.

    My dad is from Michigan, but his family is Belgium. My mom is from Connecticut Greenwich and her family is puerto rican and Peruvian... so of course when it gets down to my generation, they throw everything at us KIDS.
  • ChasingKatie
    ChasingKatie Posts: 331 Member
    Supper and Soda are unacceptable in my vocabulary.
  • Kanlassak
    Kanlassak Posts: 101 Member
    Since starting this site, I've adopted the Hobbit meal names: breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper, in that order and vaguely corresponding to different parts of the day. So for me, dinner is around 6, and supper would be anything after 8 or 9.

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