Is dinner the noon meal or the evening meal?

[rose]

Just wondering how you all define dinner. Growing up it was always synonymous with supper but I've met other who view it as synonymous with lunch. What do you all think?

[EMS83]

Depends on where you're from!

[marbel]

Where I grew up it is the evening meal.  Where I live now, a lot of people call the noon meal dinner on Sunday only.  I call the noon meal lunch regardless of the day of the week. 

 

ETA: It does vary by geography, as CES says.  

Edited June 16, 2017 by marbel

[EMS83]

For me it has always been the evening meal, but for my dad growing up on a farm, it was the midday meal.

[Rachel]

Noon is lunch, evening is supper. Dinner is something special like a Sunday dinner with roast and all the fixings, or Thanksgiving dinner. It might happen around noon, in the afternoon, or in the evening. If you invite me over for dinner, I wouldn't have a clue what time to show up.

[SKL]

When I was a kid, we used dinner and supper synonymously, but I knew people who called the midday meal "dinner."

[Zinnia]

Growing up it was synonymous with lunch, but it's become synonymous with supper now.  Mostly we use it for whatever the bigger meal of the day is going to be, so we still have Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, Sunday dinner (all those between noon and 2).

 

And mostly, I don't think I use dinner, but we say lunch and supper.

[Liz CA]

West coast. We have lunch anywhere from 11am -2pm :) and dinner in the evening.

[Elizabeth86]

To me dinner and supper are the same third meal. My fil calls lunch dinner and dinner supper.

[Arcadia]

For my in-laws, it is when FIL is back from work and the biggest meal of the day. However their weekend lunch is just as heavy as dinner. They do only three meals.

 

My side of the family love to eat and prefers smaller meals. We do breakfast, snack, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper. Adults relatives tend to wake up by 6am and sleep after 11pm so supper is after 9pm.

[Guest]

I've never heard anyone younger than my grandparents refer to supper here. Everyone calls it dinner. And of course lunch is lunch. Unless I've been watching too much Downton Abbey. Then it's luncheon. :) 

[creekland]

Dinner is the largest meal of the day for us, not counting breakfast.  I guess we're different (again).  Usually we just use lunch and supper to distinguish which meal is which.  We try to have "dinner" as our midday meal, but it all depends on when we're all together and what we're doing.

[Tanaqui]

Dinner is the evening meal except in a few set phrases like "Thanksgiving dinner" or "Christmas dinner", in which case it's the biggest meal, even if it happens in the afternoon. (Which it doesn't for us, but I know it's normal for others for that to be the case.)

[Paige]

It's whatever you want it to be except breakfast. 

[Melissa in Australia]

other

 

 lunch is at lunch time and tea is the big meal at the end of the day.

[brehon]

I voted the noon meal. Really, though, I probably should have voted Other because traditionally where/when I'm from dinner was not only the noon meal, but also the biggest meal. Supper was lighter. I still differentiate between dinner and supper much to the merriment of friends and colleagues.

 

---signed a 6th generation Texan

Edited June 16, 2017 by brehon

[Audrey]

Around here dinner means noon meal, but they're wrong. Lunch is the noon meal.  Dinner is supper, which is also dinner.  Both are in the evening. 

 

 

[HS Mom in NC]

Noon-lunch

Evening-dinner

Supper-Bible reading

 

It's very rare to hear the term supper here unless someone is talking about an event in the Bible in which case it's the Last Supper.

[TechWife]

For me it is synonymous with supper. However, for my husband it is the noon meal. It has made for some interesting planning conversations over the years! I think I have him convinced now, though! 

[gardenmom5]

my grandmother (farm girl) always called  the mid-day meal dinner- and it was much heartier. the evening meal was supper, and it was lighter.

my city grandmother - called the evening meal dinner - and that's what I grew up with in my foo.

 

I was watching the british manor house reenactment- and the servants called  their mid-day meal "dinner" - and it was large.  the evening was a light supper.  they had to be free to serve the family their dinner.

 

I was visiting one of my mom's cousins - who is still on the family farm property (over 150 years now).  they called midday dinner - but were also feeding farm hands so it was a pretty big meal.

similar with the servants.  you don't think about scheduling two separate groups if you've only ever scheduled one.

[Seasider]

Monday through Friday it's the evening meal, but on Sunday it's lunch! (ETA meaning the noon meal in a Sunday is called dinner.)

 

Also, on Thanksgiving Day it's dinner, no matter what time it's served.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Seasider

[Word Nerd]

My dad (and his family before him, also farmers) called the biggest meal of the day dinner. I usually just call the evening meal supper or dinner but consider big holiday meals dinners no matter what time of day they are.

[Matryoshka]

Dinner is the biggest meal of the day, regardless of time.

 

Lunch is the midday meal if you have dinner in the evening; supper is the evening meal if you have dinner at midday.

[Arctic Bunny]

I believe our province is well known for having dinner at noon.

[Tap]

Depends on who i am talking to.  My mother's famiy (from Arkansas/Oklahoma)....it would been noon time meal.

 

My dads family and the PNW....evening meal. 

[bookbard]

Evening meal, synonymous with tea-time. When we were kids, it was always 'tea'. Nowadays it's more likely to be 'dinner'. But either works - Australia. 

[Laura Corin]

In the UK it's normally a class issue, but there's some regional stuff too.  Very roughly:

 

Working class: Breakfast, dinner, tea at about 6 (a meal, not cake), supper (snack near bedtime)

Middle class: Breakfast, lunch, maybe a cup of tea with a biscuit at 4 or 5, supper at 7 or 8 (main evening meal)

 

The middle class tend to use 'dinner' for a meal you go out for in the evening.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Laura Corin

[RootAnn]

Like many, dinner and supper were interchangeable for me growing up and for my kids growing up now.

 

FIL is visiting and, as an old farmer, dinner is the noon meal and supper is the evening meal. He makes a point every visit of the "correct" terminology.

 

I hadn't heard of the idea that it is also the biggest meal of the day. If so, he has been sorely disappointed this week as I have fed him leftovers for lunch (and late-like 1:30-2) everyday. My kids fend for themselves for lunch and I generally don't eat lunch, so by the time I remember that he expects to be fed, he gets a sandwich or last night's leftovers.

[Pawz4me]

Growing up the noon meal was called dinner even though it wasn't our largest meal of the day. That bit of regional custom seems to have faded out (sadly, to me -- I really like regional differences) and now everyone here refers to the noon meal as lunch. Supper and dinner are both commonly used for the evening meal, although more people seem to say supper. I suppose because it sounds a bit more casual (which most meals certainly are nowadays), but who knows for sure?

[Night Elf]

I chose the evening meal but it also happens to be our biggest meal of the day. No one in my family or circle of friends while I was growing up called the evening meal supper.

[LuvToRead]

Lunch is a light noon meal, while dinner is a bigger noon meal.  We eat supper in the evening.

[SparklyUnicorn]

dinner/supper

 

lunch is lunch..it is not dinner  :laugh:

[trulycrabby]

My dad is from rural South Carolina; the noon meal is "dinner," and six pm meal is "supper." Dinner is the biggest meal of the day; supper is leftovers from dinner. We "argued" these facts for hours when I was a kid, and I still like to rile him up by asking "what's for lunch?" :o

[SparklyUnicorn]

I chose the evening meal but it also happens to be our biggest meal of the day. No one in my family or circle of friends while I was growing up called the evening meal supper.

 

same here on the supper thing

 

I have an irrational aversion of the word supper.

[Kalmia]

same here on the supper thing

 

I have an irrational aversion of the word supper.

 

Then you will really want to stay away from the delicious, but "scarily" named, Hot Suppa restaurant in Portland, ME.

[lavender's green]

I use dinner and supper interchangeably for the last meal of the day (well, actually I don't like the word supper, no idea why). But growing up, dinner and lunch were interchangeable, because the midday meal had historically been the largest meal of the day in that region, when most people were farmers and needed the nourishment/break before heading back out to the fields. My parents started using dinner and supper interchangeably as the culture around them moved toward lighter lunches, but my grandma was such a stickler for correcting me when I said it "wrong."

 

The exception to the interchangeability is Sundays and feast days, when the main meal is at midday, and probably slightly late to account for all the cooking. To me that's the perfectly normal and natural thing to do - who wants to wait all day to eat, then go to bed stuffed? Much nicer to eat in the early afternoon and then take a pleasant walk while you digest and pat yourself on the back for pulling off such a lovely feast. :) Then maybe have a salad and small slice of pie for the evening meal. My in-laws act confused by this. To them Christmas Dinner is at dinner time, the evening meal, and they eat a normal (though festive) breakfast and lunch that day. They grew up in a different region, though, and DH is awfully laid-back about traditions, so we default to my way.

[Bluegoat]

They are actually all used around here quite often, and you need to depend on context to know what people mean sometimes.  If you go back a little in the past, dinner was the main meal, usually at noon in rural areas, and this is a very rural part of the country.  So supper was in the evening.  But in the few more industrial or urban areas, the working class moved to having their main meal in the evening and so lunch at noon.  Now, you hear supper used for the evening meal no matter hat the size, lunch used for a noon meal which is almost never large, and dinner can be used for either but if at noon it might be larger than a lunch.

[alisoncooks]

Growing up, "dinner" was the noon meal, and my parents still call it that.

Since I now call the noon meal "lunch" and evening meal "dinner," I always have to be extra careful when making dining plans with my folks. :)

[J-rap]

Dinner is the biggest meal of the day, and usually it's in the evenings.  It generally consists of a main course and sides.

 

If it's just a sandwich and carrot sticks for dinner, we might call it "supper" instead. 

 

But "supper" is a confusing word where I'm living now.  I've always used it to mean a light dinner -- and only in the evenings.  But here, people might announce "MEETING WITH SUPPER INCLUDED" and the supper is just store-bought cookies and juice.  So I think around here, "supper" often just means refreshments.

 

 

 

 

[Callie]

Noon.  I'm from rural Kentucky.

[Lady Florida.]

There's no noon meal. I grew up in a large NJ city, then a Florida suburban city. Noon meals were small, usually eaten at work or school. At home lunch (the noon meal) was only eaten if you were hungry.

 

Dinner and supper are interchangeable though lately I say dinner more often than supper. The only time dinner was an afternoon meal (some time between 1 and 3, not noon) was on a major food holiday. Christmas dinner, Thanksgiving dinner, Easter dinner.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Lady Florida.

[rose]

Looks like we should all just ditch the word dinner and stick with lunch and supper and spare the world the confusion!

[KarenNC]

Both/either

[lllll]

nm

Edited July 11, 2017 by tentwelve

[HTRMom]

Evening!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AHASRADA]

Synonymous with largest or most formal meal of the day. In my circles, the elderly call lunch "dinner". Everyone else uses it to refer to supper when eaten in a more formal setting.

[vonfirmath]

Just wondering how you all define dinner. Growing up it was always synonymous with supper but I've met other who view it as synonymous with lunch. What do you all think?

 

Our Thanksgiving dinners are almost always middle of the day.

 

ARound here, dinner can be used for lunch or supper -- just depends on which will be the big meal of the day.

[freeindeed]

I associate it with supper. We'll ask someone out for drinks and dinner, and it will refer to the evening meal.

[Farrar]

Lunch when I was with my grandparents in south Georgia. Supper everywhere else. But I always took it as one of those funny things... I mean, my grandparents still referred to going to the movies as "the picture show" and everyone gave their phone number as just four digits. It was like a little pocket of slower time.

[Lady Florida.]

I associate it with supper. We'll ask someone out for drinks and dinner, and it will refer to the evening meal.

 

Also dinner and a movie means an evening meal, then a movie.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Lady Florida.