Today, dinner almost universally refers to the evening meal. But it has had a long etymological history to get to that point.
Those with older relatives might have noticed them say "dinner" to refer to the midday meal—what we would usually call "lunch" today. It's rather archaic today, but it used to be the dominant usage.
It comes to modern English from Old French disner (via Middle English dyner), which originally meant "breakfast", but later meant "lunch". Disner is evolved into modern French dîner, suggesting the same more recent history has taken place in that language as in English.
Disner comes, ultimately, from Latin *disiūnō, meaning "to break the fast".
So, depending on when you are, "dinner", and its etymological ancestors, could have meant breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
23 Comments
benjhm@sopuli.xyz · 15 pts · 338d
To me it's more a class thing - dinner is the biggest meai, which for workers and students was provided by the canteen in the middle of the day, while intellectuals preferred to discuss over dinner at home in the evening. When I was younger, posh people had lunch(eon), while others had dinner, and at least in the north of england the after-work meal at around 6pm was called 'tea' - which for posher people meant cakes at 4pm. Another variant for the evening is supper - also from french souper. By the way, in french it's dejeuner that literally translates as break the fast (the small variant petit-d being modern breakfast).
bluGill@fedia.io · 3 pts · 338d
Cakes at 4 is high tea, tea is still around 6. Or so I'm told. On this side of the bond tea is only a drink.
7uWqKj@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 338d
Germans, being too efficient for that kind of nonsense, instead say "early piece" for breakfast, "midday food" for lunch, and "evening food" for dinner/supper. 😁
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 338d
Yes and we native speakers of German have no idea why other languages don't do this. "Morning meal", "midday meal" and "evening meal" would work very well in English, why do we have to remember 3 extra words for those things…
mapto@masto.bg · 2 pts · 338d
@schnurrito @7uWqKj because it's something often spoken about and two words are too long in such frequent occasions?
Mad_Punda@feddit.org · 5 pts · 338d
In Swedish ”middag” is the main meal of the day, often eaten in the evening these days. Literally translated it could mean ”middle of the day”. It drives me crazy. Though I learned there’s also ”kvällsmat”, evening food.
Auster@thebrainbin.org · 1 pts · 338d
Same in Norwegian. Already traumatized of getting it mixed. e.e"
TammyTobacco@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 338d
Dinner is the largest meal of the day. Supper is the evening meal regardless.
bluGill@fedia.io · 3 pts · 338d
Right sunday dinner is lunch time. work days it is supper. Holidays they say what time dinner is.
swelter_spark@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 337d
This is what I was taught growing up.
TheBlackLounge@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 338d
Also not true etymology, or in some places of the English speaking world still
A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 338d
In blue collar Appalachia, it often still means the midday meal while "supper" is the evening.
rhythmisaprancer@piefed.social · 3 pts · 338d
This was my experience living in rural southern Appalachia. If someone wanted to meet me after dinner, they meant early afternoon, not evening.
Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 338d
West Midlanders in the UK, or at least Brummies, often use dinner for the midday meal which led to confusing conversations with my colleage from Cannock more than a few times.
A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 338d
Yeah my spouse is from Nottinghamshire, I've heard that from her family too
OrteilGenou@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 338d
That's what it was for me growing up as well, Irish Canadian
A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 338d
I've noticed there are a few similarities, lots of holdovers from Scottish and Irish immigrants i reckon
lvxferre@mander.xyz · 4 pts · 337d
BCsven@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 338d
In the UK dinner is still typically the lunch meal, and evening meal is called tea.
Gingerbeardman@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 338d
Midlander here. Dinner is the "main meal" whenever it's eaten. Tea is always the evening meal and lunch is always the midday meal though.
wiccan2@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 338d
Not across all of the UK, definitely not here in the south, Me and a fellow midlander once spent a week trying to explain dinner = midday/tea = evening to someone at work, I think they're still confused.
I saw the title of the post and my first thought was all of those options are still true in the UK depending on where you ask, lol.
Auster@thebrainbin.org · 2 pts · 338d
Latin is "disiūnō"? Interesting - in Spanish, "desayuno" is the first meal if the day *-*
lvxferre@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 337d
FundMECFS@anarchist.nexus · 2 pts · 337d
In Romand dialect of French, spoken in Switzerland, Dinner means lunch, and souper means dinner.
theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -3 pts · 338d
Morning, midday or evening the time of day doesn't matter it is where that person is on their own schedule. If they are working nights then breakfast is an evening meal and dinner could be 5am.