Meal names (was: Re: Pies, puddings, biscuits and tarts)

[eloise_herisson]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "ovc88guelph" <mckosvc at b...> 
wrote:

<>>     I'm curious about how people refer to meals. In my family, we 
> had breakfast, lunch and supper/dinner. These last two were 
> synonyms. When I moved to a rural area, I was quite horrified when  
> repairmen would tell me to expect them after dinner, by which they 
> meant "after lunch". And after a late night gathering or reception, 
> a "lunch" would be served about 11 pm. Apparently, I have passed my 
> confusion on to the next generation. My children often wake one 
> another up by shouting "Wake up! We're having pancakes for supper!"


Sorry, I don't know your name.

We have breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I grew up having breakfast, dinner and tea.

It's partly a class thing (viz. I'm a snob) and partly regional. 
Often I get confused and have breakfast, lunch and tea and I think I 
frequently refer to the children's evening meal as "tea".

Lunch and dinner are "U". Dinner and tea are "non-U" and also common 
usage, for example, in the north of England where I grew up.

Having said that, I also note that the terribly middle-class children 
in Enid Blyton's books always had dinner in the middle of the day. 
And it's normal to speak of school dinners.

<quick dive into the book shelf>

Ah-ha!
Nancy Mitford:

"*Dinner*. U-speakers eat *lunch* in the middle of the day 
(*luncheon* is old-fashioned U) and *dinner* in the evening; if a U-
speaker feels that what he is eating is a travesty of his dinner, he 
may appropriately call it *supper*. Non-U speakers (also U-children 
and U-dogs) on the other hand, have their *dinner* in the middle of 
the day. *Evening meal* is non-U"

When I was a child, my neighbours were evidently also non-U. I can 
remember being out in the street playing and my mother shouting to me 
to come in for my dinner. One of the other children snottily 
said, "It's not dinner, it's lunch!", which remark probably set off a 
lifetime's interest in these vagueries.

Of course, it's largely a matter of custom and fashion. I seem to 
recall that in Jane Austen, neither meal times nor names coincide 
with the above. I've also come across supper as meaning a late night 
snack

And what I ate in the evening as a child growing up, was 
technically "high tea", a portmanteau meal consisting of a simple 
cooked dish, with bread and butter and - well, tea, of course, as 
well as pudding (or dessert as we called it) and cakes.

~Eloise