TAKE AWAY: universal for any meal at any time of day
Oh, don’t get all carried away with Ike’s description—that’s only at the country club where he’s headwaiter (he’s the paunchy guy with the pencil moustache who goes “EEEE-yesss?” when you enter).
As for me—another Yankee—we had Dinner at Eight. “Supper” was a word unknown in our parts. I understand it is what the Southerners ate.
NOW that makes more sense. When I was teaching elementary school music (back North), all of the music books (teacher edition and smaller copies passed out to students) had the third line as:
…Supper’s over and breakfast’s a-cookin’…
[These are the same books that would change “Oh! Susanna!”'s line from “sun so hot, I froze to death” to “sun so hot, I froze myself”. As (f)R would say, prob’ly a damn Yankee editor".]
Eve - is that “EEEE-yesss”, as in “The Great Guildersleeve”? ::chuckle::
“Dinner” is my word for the evening meal, formal or not.
Hey Ike,
I thought “luncheon” was considered non-U.
And, as Miss Manners points out, “high tea” is a thoroughly plebian affair involving serious food, taken in the early evening by rough-hewn types who have to get up early to milk the cows or go down the mine or something.
What you have there is “tea.”
Ike, you don’t fool me for a minute. You’re from Cleveland, so you have no idea what gammon is. Unless you hope it’s really “gamine.” You’re married, so the only way you get that late-night light supper is at Denny’s. And I assume you have to take the brandy and cigars in the garage or back yard, like all the rest of us married guys.
The more I read threads like these the more I realize how weird Minnesota truly is…
In these parts we’ve a strange breed of restaurant known as a ‘supper club’. ‘Supper’ is the term used for the evening meal. ‘Dinner’, however, is used for any meal at someone’s home that causes them to break out the tablecloths and candles - midday meal at Easter, e.g., or nighttime meal at Christmas.
chique/[sub]sandyr[/sub], I’m originally from Minnesota, so I have completely given up on knowing WHAT to call any meal after breakfast.
Book recommendation: How to Talk Minnesotan, by Howard Mohr. It has a lovely definition of “a little lunch.”
Was thinking of bringing that up, but why confuse them even more? 
I think the only freaks who actually eat supper are the same ones who drink pop! Who are these people??!!??
The only time “dinner” was used in our family was regarding the Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinners. Otherwise; breakfast, lunch and supper.
I’m sorry but you’re all wrong.
Lunch is the midday meal, whilst tea is the evening meal.
Hence “Lunchtime” and “Tea-time.”
Supper is the snack that you eat before you go to bed.
Coming off a farm, the routine was :
Breakfast 6:30
Morning smoko @9:30
Lunch @12:00
Afternoon smoko @ 3:00
Tea @7:30
Supper @10:00
Which one of lunch/tea was classed as dinner depended on the season. During summer it’s too hot to have the main meal in the middle of the day.
Well, where I grew up, in northern Virginia, I didn’t hear about supper until I read those old Dick and Jane books . . . and after that not until I heard my neighbor (not raised in this country) calling to her daughter “Grace, it’s time for supper”.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner. And snacking in between.
“Dinner” at mid-day is a Southern thing, mostly.
It dates from the time when the majority of people lived and worked on farms. Everyone, got up before daybreak, had a huge breakfast, and then went to work in the fields in the cool of the morning.
Those of us who have worked in the fields in the South know that it is suicidal to try to work in the noon/early afternoon heat. Thus it became the custom to come to the house during the heat of the day, have a big meal, and then nap or lounge (with fan in hand) during the scorching afternoons.
In the late afternoon to early evening hours, when things cooled down, everyone went back out into the fields for more work. “Supper” was eaten in the evening, and usually consisted of leftovers from the mid-day meal, with perhaps some freshly-baked cornbread.
As the dictionary definition suggests, “dinner,” served at mid-day, was the “principal” meal for farm-dwelling Southerners.
Now was that just a Southern thing, or was it the same in the farming regions of the Midwest? Anyone know?
spoke-: Damn, I just wasted twenty minutes websearching for a copy of a Grant Wood painting that I can just SEE every detail of in my head…
It was of a farm family and assorted farmworkers sitting down for the big midday meal, and it was called something like “Dinner on the Farm.”
Seeing that Wood was an Iowan, I’d say the dinner/supper thing is an urban/rural split, and NOT regional.
Is this it?
http://www.lifestylemanagement.com/lma/books/nov2.htm
(Gosh, how did I do my procrastinating before I had internet access?)
Oops, sorry. Interestingly wrong url.
Here’s the one I meant to copy:
That’s the one…you’re the best, cherie!
Of course, now that I see it, I realize that we have no IDEA what they’re eating or what time of day it is…for all we know, they could be tucking into sashimi and large platters of shelled pistachios.
Oooops, forgot to scroll across; damn, that’s one LONG painting.
Okay, the post still holds. The chick in the tan dress is bringing in a big bowl of Wasabi for the workmen to drizzle over their Eel Rolls.