Please help settle this-- lol

[Woodhaven]

We call it "dinner" but that's because it is the largest and most formal meal of our day. Dinner can be at noon/mid-day if that is your largest meal. Supper is a smaller and less formal evening meal.

 

I was raised in Chicago, lived in TN for 11 years, and now live in VA. :)

[happi duck]

both, totally interchangeable for our family

[Twigs]

Texas - breakfast, lunch, supper

 

(Dinner if for Christmas and Thanksgiving, with china and silverware!)

[OnTheBrink]

Dinner is what we eat in the evening. I hate the word "supper".

[kat19]

Born and raised in the midwest.

Breakfast, Lunch and Supper here.

[Ellyndria]

I didn't vote, because I've said both.

 

I grew up in the midwest, and I used to say breakfast, lunch, and supper.

 

Sometime later, after I moved away from home, it turned into breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I think it's because we usually eat earlier in the evening than I did growing up. Supper always seemed like a later meal to me.

 

However, I rather like the Hobbit way of calling meals!

[Jean in Newcastle]

Both equally. Lunch, though, is lunch.

 

:iagree: PNW

Edited February 14, 2011 by Jean in Newcastle

[AngieW in Texas]

We use both interchangeably. I doubt that we use one any more than the other. We're in Texas.

[Parrothead]

 

However, I rather like the Hobbit way of calling meals!

If anything can get me out of bed earlier it will be having breakfast and elevenses. ;)

[roxanne23]

.

Edited January 4, 2023 by roxanne23

[Paige]

I use them interchangeably. I can think of no pattern to when I'd use one over the other. I do not call lunch dinner. My country relatives do and it bothers me as I have no idea what they are talking about and always have to clarify. I think they use dinner for lunch and supper or you'd think I would have figured out the pattern by now, but maybe I am just dense and they only mean it for lunch and I've never noticed.

[Dawn in OH]

In my family it's always been dinner for the evening meal. I have no idea why or when that decision was made.

[KidsHappen]

We say bfast, lunch, and dinner.

 

However, when I was growing up in a teeny tiny town in SE TX the meals were and still are bfast, dinner, and supper:) It's been 18 hrs. since I left, but I still know what time of day I'm eating when Granny says, "I've got dinner cooked."

 

 

That weird. I also grew up in a teeny, tiny little town in NE TX and we always called it breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

I have heard people use the term supper and I always understood it to mean dinner. I have always thought that it was breakfast, lunch and either dinner or supper depending on where you were from. I didn't realize that some people meant totally different meals when talking about dinner or supper. :001_huh:

[KidsHappen]

My mother's family is from TX and GA and they all called it dinner. My dad was from Ohio and I don't know what he called it growing up but by the time us kids came around in TX we all called it dinner. My hubby spent the first ten years of his life in Chicago and the rest of his life in FL. I don't know what he called it growing up but he calls it dinner now. All my kids also call it dinner (where would they learn anything else). My SIL also calls it dinner but his family is also from TX and GA. My dad joined the military when I was about 8 so I have traveled all around the country since then. I have heard people say supper which I took to mean dinner. As in everyone has breakfast, lunch and then either dinner or supper depending on where you are from. But it sounds like from some of these replies that some people call lunch either dinner or supper and then the other one whatever word is left. Or that certain words pertain to the largest or main meal which could be afternoon, could be evening. Or that regular evening meals are suppers but a fancy family meal would be a dinner. I had no idea there were so many different usuages for these words.

[WiseOwlKnits]

I live have lived in 3 different geographical areas of TX (west, central, and north) and I've never heard it referred to as anything but breakfast, lunch, and dinner. :)

[helena]

I'm from Southern California, I've never used the word supper. I think of Little House on the Prairie when I see or hear it.

I agree with Lesley, breakfast, lunch, and dinner..

[Mama Geek]

Both equally. Lunch, though, is lunch.

:iagree:

 

I've lived a lot of places along the east coast as far north as PA and as far south as Florida. I've also lived in TX and AK. When I was real little I was in WV and lived in South Carolina for part of elem school all the way through college.

 

I never got used to lunch being referred to dinner in the south.

Edited February 14, 2011 by Mama Geek

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

We mostly call it dinner, but occasionally call it supper. I grew up and still live in NE Ohio.

[SailorMom]

Dinner, lived in California until I was 25 (military now....).

[nd293]

I call it both, just depends on my mood... :)

 

:iagree:

 

The Brits I know always said "tea" when talking about the evening meal (say 6pm-ish) to their kids, but I'm not sure if the adults ate separately and called it something different.

 

To me tea is a drink, or a very fancy afternoon meal (as in "high tea").

[hooahwife]

Supper is the meal we eat at night. Dinner is what we have on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

[mom31257]

I actually say both, but since that wasn't an option, I said dinner because I believe I say that more often.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

I have been defeated :glare: :001_huh: :tongue_smilie:

 

 

Dd12, ds6 and I say the last meal of the day is supper.

 

 

Dh, dd9 and ds4 say its dinner.

 

 

 

Exception-- We all call our big noon (usually closer to 2pm-ish) meal on sunday dinner and then we have a small snack around 6pm.

 

We grew up in Michigan and just moved here to Wyoming 3 years ago

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

We call it dinner (suburban Chicago), but my parents grew up calling it supper (northern Wisconsin, UP Michigan). My sister, who moved to the farm 15 years ago had learned to call the midday meal dinner and the last meal supper - but only on Sundays and only when going to her SIL's house (a fabulous cook who can whip up a pork chop dinner for 12 with 30 minutes notice.)

 

Hmmmm maybe its a Michigan thing :lol:

 

Yes, what about us folks who use BOTH words!?!:D

 

You have to decide one or the other :tongue_smilie:-- Im mean I know :lol:

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

We use both terms interchangeably for the evening meal. Lunch is always called lunch.

[~Tara~]

Supper is the at home meal, dinner is when we do something 'greater' out or with family (just like Sunday dinner)

 

I didn't think of it that way until I read it. "oh, yeah, that's how I see it too"

[JeneralMom]

I use them interchangeably.

[2_girls_mommy]

I have not read the others, so someone else may have already said this. At this time we say our meals in this order:

Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

 

But, my grandmother has at her house:

Breakfast, dinner, supper.

 

My understanding is that "dinner" means the main meal (biggest) of the day. In days past on the farm that would have been the midday meal, so it was called dinner. When I read Little House on the Prairie that is what I think of too. My grandparents are from that era. Lunch came from "luncheon" which became the vogue thing to say during the 50's I believe. So it is a new term. Anyway, that is how I explain it to my dds. If for instance we are having our main meal like Thanksgiving during the day or a big after church meal, then I do call it dinner even if it is midday.

[Jean in Newcastle]

 

My understanding is that "dinner" means the main meal (biggest) of the day. In days past on the farm that would have been the midday meal, so it was called dinner. When I read Little House on the Prairie that is what I think of too. My grandparents are from that era. Lunch came from "luncheon" which became the vogue thing to say during the 50's I believe. So it is a new term. Anyway, that is how I explain it to my dds. If for instance we are having our main meal like Thanksgiving during the day or a big after church meal, then I do call it dinner even if it is midday.

 

:iagree:

[Matryoshka]

Dinner is the main meal of the day, whether it's in the middle or near the end of the day. If in the middle, then the evening meal is supper. If in the evening, then the noon meal is lunch.

 

 

:iagree: