Is your evening meal dinner or supper?
I use both words pretty much interchangeably. Grew up Midwest and East Coast. Live in California now.
Dinner.
BUT, my grandma grew up in Louisiana, and she always called lunch “dinner” and dinner “supper.”
I generally use supper when I’m talking about a large mid-day meal. Dinner only happens at night, but supper happens in the afternoon. I’ll go have supper at my grandparents’ house sometimes (they have their primary meal at lunch time).
For me:
Dinner: always in the evening, either large or small meal
Supper: always in the afternoon, always a large meal
Lunch: always in the afternoon, either large or small (I’d contrast a large lunch with supper in that a large lunch would be more informal).
For me, supper is the big meal, and dinner is always the evening meal. If the big meal is at lunch, its supper, if its in the evening, its supper.
Brought up in Yorkshire in the north of England
Breakfast
Dinner
Tea (if a fourth meal is had, this is not a given)
Supper
I always called the afternoon meal “dinner” and the evening meal “supper”. Now that I live here in the U.S., my husband is constantly “correcting” me. He calls the afternoon meal “lunch” and the evening meal “dinner”.
If I say “supper” he leaves it alone. But Og forbid I call his lunch “dinner”!
“Lunch”, to me, is something you pack for work/school, or a snack.
Re: lunch as something you pack for work/school: My mother would say, “Don’t forget your lunch so you’ll have something to eat at dinner!” And I would often reply, “Thanks, Mom, I’ll be back in time for supper!”
I don’t think I’ve ever used so many quotation marks. Ever.
Also brought up in Yorkshire, but with a different result:
Breakfast
Dinner
Tea
Supper (only at my grandmother’s - a light snack of tea and cakes shortly before bed)
Supper is the evening meal for me (and also usually the big meal of the day). The midday meal is either lunch or dinner interchangably, though dinner to me usually signifies a large meal, while lunch can be small.
I have a story about being confused when I came to university last year, where almost everybody called supper dinner.
Dinner is the biggest meal of the day, whether it’s at noon or in the evening. One has dinner and either lunch (which is at noon) or supper (in the evening).
Dinner. I’ve never used the word ‘supper’ before except in jest.
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
If someone were to use the word “supper” it would be interchangeable with “dinner” although in my mind it would connote a light snack in the evening rather than a full meal.
On a special occasion, such as Thanksgiving, dinner may be in the early afternoon, but that would basically be the only PM meal that day. I would never call the noontime meal either dinner or supper.
Growing up in Maine, it was primarily “Breakfast, Lunch, Supper”.
“Dinner” COULD mean either lunch or supper, but it usually did mean supper.
It also meant just kind of a big meal or a celebration. The firehouse or the church might be having a dinner.
**Breakfast **- morning food, often grabbed on the run or skipped entirely
**Brunch **- larger meal than breakfast, only eaten on weekends or special occasions. Often includes meats as well as cereal, pancakes or eggs. If breakfast is had, brunch will not be. One or t’other. Brunch is later in the day than breakfast would have been (10:30ish instead of 6:30ish)
**Lunch **- smallish noonish meal, usually eaten at school/work. Optional if bruch has been had.
**Snack **- something small (ie. apple or yogurt), generally eaten between lunch and dinner, although occasionally between breakfast and lunch.
**Dinner **- large meal, eaten together as a family at home. In our house eaten at 7ish, although that’s late for most families. Generally closer to 6ish, for most folks I know. 9 or 10ish when I was single in New York, though.
**Tea **and **Supper **- what they eat in Mary Poppins. Although I like to refer to my afternoon snack as “Tea” in a silly posh voice that gets my kid giggling.
Growing up, we used dinner and lunch interchangeably to mean the midday meal, while supper was always in the evening. I think “dinner” may have had a more formal connotation, as we always used that when referring to a sit-down meal at my grandparents after church on Sunday or on holidays.
Somewhere along the line, much to the chagrin of my relatives “back home,” my usage changed. Now I use dinner and supper interchangeably to mean the evening meal, and lunch is always lunch. I haven’t figured out if this is a regional difference, although I only live about an hour from where I grew up.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner. I only say “supper” like this: “Suppah” with a southern accent.
Breakfast.
Lunch.
Supper (largest meal).
“Dinner” would be something more structured or more formal than supper. For example, going out to a really nice restaurant would be “dinner.” Also special occasions like Thanksgiving.
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Supper was interchangeable with dinner for the evening meal, but dinner was more common.
The main meal at night (usually around 7.00pm) is dinner. *Supper * would be considerably later and after something else e.g. supper at 10.00pm after a play or a concert.
I say dinner, but I guess I really eat supper- I eat meals at 9 or 10 pm all the time.
I agree with the fat, bald guy up there. I never say supper and can’t remember the last time I heard anybody else say it.
At dinner, you dine.
At supper, you _____.