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Tea vs. Supper vs. Dinner vs. Lunch


Glasseye

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What's it all about ? Please, help me make sense of it all.

 

I have always thought of "Tea" is something you have in the afternoon. Kind of like, tea and crumpets type of thing. Something relaxing to help get you through until dinner.

 

I've always thought of dinner and supper as sort of the same time. Supper being more of a red neck type of thing, but still basically the same thing as dinner. Help me out here guys. I know I'm just an unsophisticated Yank here, but pleas shed some light.

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I’m a UK northerner that has been corrupted by broader UK etiquette, none of this is 100% correct 

In the uk there are variations depending where you are from.

ok breakfast is breakfast

Brunch is basically breakfast for those that wake up late or are ponces and need and excuse to drink on it

Lunch for me is midday food, many northerners in the UK say dinner for lunch.

Tea is the word many northerners would use for ‘dinner’.

‘‘Afternoon tea’ is the posh version that would be used for what you would get in a hotel/cafe etc for tea/sandwiches/crumpets/cakes etc.

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2 hours ago, Sangsom said:

I’m a UK northerner that has been corrupted by broader UK etiquette, none of this is 100% correct 

In the uk there are variations depending where you are from.

ok breakfast is breakfast

Brunch is basically breakfast for those that wake up late or are ponces and need and excuse to drink on it

Lunch for me is midday food, many northerners in the UK say dinner for lunch.

Tea is the word many northerners would use for ‘dinner’.

‘‘Afternoon tea’ is the posh version that would be used for what you would get in a hotel/cafe etc for tea/sandwiches/crumpets/cakes etc.

You forgot "morning tea" not to mention elevenses.

 

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Everything just seems so long ago to remember accurately. I can't even remember what term the slop jockeys used for each mealtime for the 16 years that I was in the Army but I'm guessing Breakfast/Lunch/Evening Meal.....Or is that a holiday camp thing??

Purely from the expression "school dinners" I am presuming that's what was used in our family in the 50s and 60s. Even in '73 when I left school (and left home!) it was still called "Dinner money".

Post 1990 my vocabulary was mainly influenced by "Hotel English" as I started to work as a contractor worldwide and I can't even remember what each meal was called then.

To bring things up to date ... I have a pork steak marinating in black pepper which I will eat when I get hungry but I have no idea what name I will call that mealtime. 

 

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This has always been a fascinating question which still confuses even the most British of Brits these days.
Why do some people call their evening meal ‘tea’? So, first, let’s delve into a bit of background information
on the real definition of tea.

There are basically two types: “low” tea and “high” tea.

“Low” tea

Anna Maria Russell, the 7th Duchess of Bedford and friend of Queen Victoria, is widely accredited with
introducing the concept of “afternoon” or “low” tea to rich households. She would ask her butler to bring
only tea, bread, butter, perhaps even a few scones to her chambers at around 5pm because she would feel
slightly peckish, but could not eat a full meal yet. Eventually, she did this on a daily basis, even inviting her
friends to her house to join in, and essentially creating a new type of social ritual.

This practice eventually trickled down into the working classes who worked long hours. They found that
having a small snack in between the midday meal and evening meal would help boost energy levels.

“High” tea

“High” tea is actually dinner but has also come to mean a lavish afternoon tea. In the past, high tea was an
alternative to afternoon tea. It combined snacks and a hearty meal and was usually served at about 6pm.

This eventually evolved into the lower classes calling their midday meal “dinner” and their evening meal
“tea”, while the upper classes called their midday meal “lunch” and referred to the evening meal as “dinner”.

These days, class boundaries are increasingly blurred so anybody may use either term depending on how
they’ve been brought up or where they live. However, both tea and dinner essentially mean the same thing to
most Brits: an evening meal.

https://greatbritishmag.co.uk/uk-culture/why-do-some-people-call-their-evening-meal-oteao/
 

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3 hours ago, Stillearly said:

and Supper is an evening meal later than usual , it's normally lighter than dinner would be  ... ie cheese on toast 

Not too late though for cheese on toast. As a kid, mum always said if you have it before bedtime it gives you nightmares. 😀

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35 minutes ago, KWA said:

Yes, supper just before bed.  A glass of milk and a biscuit when we were kids.

My parents always had coffee and cheese and biscuits before bed. I tried, but couldn't sleep, and when I did I dreamt badly.

Edit...except for special occasions, holidays, when a glass or two of port was involved...

Edited by Painter
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7 hours ago, galenkia said:

Not too late though for cheese on toast. As a kid, mum always said if you have it before bedtime it gives you nightmares. 😀

 

7 hours ago, Painter said:

 cheese and biscuits before bed. I tried, but couldn't sleep, and when I did I dreamt badly.

Ha, not only me then.🤣

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6 hours ago, maipenrai said:

Well, as a Canadian it has always been breakfast, lunch and supper - a late breakfast can be brunch, and anything else in between main meals is a snack. 

 

Yep, similar for me - Breakfast (rarely brunch, like Christmas brunch), Lunch, (afternoon snack, after coming home from school), and Dinner (some called is supper, but that was in the minority).

 

 

**** Then there was late night cram food (or munchies) following a 12 pack of Old Style and a few doobies.

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In the 90's we had different types of lunch ... 11:30 -13:00 ish , normally a liquid lunch and called the earlies or 13:00 referred to as the lates , could be liquid or involve a sit down and could last all afternoon...  how we got away with it I'm not sure ... then in the 00's US work practices crept across the Atlantic and changed U.K. businesses ...Personnel became Human Resources and being drunk at work was frowned upon ... and lunch became a sandwich at your desk ..

🙂 

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2 minutes ago, Stillearly said:

In the 90's we had different types of lunch ... 11:30 -13:00 ish , normally a liquid lunch and called the earlies or 13:00 referred to as the lates , could be liquid or involve a sit down and could last all afternoon...  how we got away with it I'm not sure ... then in the 00's US work practices crept across the Atlantic and changed U.K. businesses ...Personnel became Human Resources and being drunk at work was frowned upon ... and lunch became a sandwich at your desk ..

🙂 

Yup, kind of sums up Pratt & Whitney over here, where Dad worked 40 years and I spent a few summers. Liquid lunches and returning to the job was very acceptable, then around 1995 the word came down it wouldn’t be tolerated much longer. I was a student that should have felt so lucky just to have a job that paid that well, but even I started having a few pints & forced to cut an hour from my time card at the end of the day. 
 

There was one guy I drank with and knew Dad from way back. He was hourly, but never took those pay cuts & would go for 3-hour lunches often, our shift was always 7-3:30. Wasn’t supervised very closely I guess, and bragged about having 6-7 quarts and still performing his duties. 
 

Years later when Dad took early retirement, I asked him about Keith. “Oh he’s dead son” I said “how, he was still pretty young” Dad said “ What do you think, you’re body can’t tolerate that forever” Keith was a hell of a nice guy,great family man I heard, but somehow drank 20+ beers a day- would hit a pub happy hour after work too. Sad that he never got help, but things were different 30 years ago

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12 minutes ago, Golfingboy said:

Yup, kind of sums up Pratt & Whitney over here, where Dad worked 40 years and I spent a few summers. Liquid lunches and returning to the job was very acceptable, then around 1995 the word came down it wouldn’t be tolerated much longer. I was a student that should have felt so lucky just to have a job that paid that well, but even I started having a few pints & forced to cut an hour from my time card at the end of the day. 
 

There was one guy I drank with and knew Dad from way back. He was hourly, but never took those pay cuts & would go for 3-hour lunches often, our shift was always 7-3:30. Wasn’t supervised very closely I guess, and bragged about having 6-7 quarts and still performing his duties. 
 

Years later when Dad took early retirement, I asked him about Keith. “Oh he’s dead son” I said “how, he was still pretty young” Dad said “ What do you think, you’re body can’t tolerate that forever” Keith was a hell of a nice guy,great family man I heard, but somehow drank 20+ beers a day- would hit a pub happy hour after work too. Sad that he never got help, but things were different 30 years ago

It was fun at the time , but I knew a couple of "Keiths" as well ... gone far too early ... I started to get bad hangovers in my 30's so wouldn't touch it for a few days ... I'm still a binge drinker , but it's much less often ...

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38 minutes ago, Stillearly said:

In the 90's we had different types of lunch ... 11:30 -13:00 ish , normally a liquid lunch and called the earlies or 13:00 referred to as the lates , could be liquid or involve a sit down and could last all afternoon...  how we got away with it I'm not sure ... then in the 00's US work practices crept across the Atlantic and changed U.K. businesses ...Personnel became Human Resources and being drunk at work was frowned upon ... and lunch became a sandwich at your desk ..

🙂 

Was like that when I started out as a panel beater in the motor trade. Half the body shop staff were either alcoholic or in the boozer lunchtime anyway.

Miracle customers ever got their cars back looking half straight 🤣

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12 minutes ago, galenkia said:

Was like that when I started out as a panel beater in the motor trade. Half the body shop staff were either alcoholic or in the boozer lunchtime anyway.

Miracle customers ever got their cars back looking half straight 🤣

Gives new meaning to the word “alignment”

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Also the chippy ,chipper , chip shop, slant 

In Aberdeen you ask for a pie supper you get pie and chips 

In Liverpool you ask for a pie dinner and get pie chips peas and gravy,

served at lunch time or tea time 

Edited by gs joe
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Well, I certainly had my share of liquid working lunches myself over the decades - we had good fun from the '70s through to the '90s but those of us with the mobile jobs finally realized that the risk just wasn't worth it anymore from about the late '90s onwards; I don't recall there ever being an official pronouncement at work but the penalties for being over the limit had just become too harsh, not to mention the potential liabilities for our employer so we just quietly dropped the habit. It was the most fun in the early '90s when we had a couple of stripper bars going - nothing like being entertained like this during your lunch hour!

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2 hours ago, Stillearly said:

In the 90's we had different types of lunch ... 11:30 -13:00 ish , normally a liquid lunch and called the earlies or 13:00 referred to as the lates , could be liquid or involve a sit down and could last all afternoon...  how we got away with it I'm not sure ... then in the 00's US work practices crept across the Atlantic and changed U.K. businesses ...Personnel became Human Resources and being drunk at work was frowned upon ... and lunch became a sandwich at your desk ..

🙂 

 

Back in the early 80's every once in a while we would hit the nitrous tanks down in the basement at the hospital I worked at.    5555555555555 !

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