# English Tea Time **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 13, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-tea-time/392086 "2007-02-13T22:28:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-tea-time/392086/21 "2007-02-14T13:26:40Z")
[QUOTE=Rayne Man] To confuse matters, the women who serve school lunches are called Dinner Ladies [/QUOTE] That’s because they are (or ought to be) providing a dinner. The confusion is because the origin of the words lies not in where the meal occurs in the day, but what it consists of. Dinner was originally the main meal of the day, and might be had anytime between 11 am and 8 pm, or thereabouts, to suit your personal schedule. If you weren’t getting your dinner till the evening, then you’d have lunch – a light meal around midday, to tide you over. If you have your dinner around midday, then of course you won’t have lunch, but you may find you want something of the sort in the late evening – which is where supper comes in. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-tea-time/392086/22 "2007-02-14T13:27:44Z")
[QUOTE=Rayne Man] To confuse matters, the women who serve school lunches are called Dinner Ladies [/QUOTE] “Educational catering facilitators”, get it right. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-tea-time/392086/23 "2007-02-14T13:37:36Z")
[QUOTE=WotNot] That’s because they are (or ought to be) providing a dinner. The confusion is because the origin of the words lies not in where the meal occurs in the day, but what it consists of. Dinner was originally the main meal of the day, and might be had anytime between 11 am and 8 pm, or thereabouts, to suit your personal schedule. If you weren’t getting your dinner till the evening, then you’d have lunch – a light meal around midday, to tide you over. If you have your dinner around midday, then of course you won’t have lunch, but you may find you want something of the sort in the late evening – which is where supper comes in. [/QUOTE] So how come many restaurants serve a substantial three-course meal at midday and call it lunch ? ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-tea-time/392086/24 "2007-02-14T13:52:11Z")
[QUOTE=Rayne Man] So how come many restaurants serve a substantial three-course meal at midday and call it lunch ? [/QUOTE] Status. Around the second half of the 19th century, midday lunch and evening dinner was the pattern for the suburb-dwelling, city office-working middle classes, while the urban and rural working classes, who generally lived within walking distance of work, would have a proper dinner at midday. It became seen as being “posher” to call the midday meal “lunch”, no matter what it consisted of, and the original definitions were partly lost. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-tea-time/392086/25 "2007-02-14T14:23:01Z")
You can tell hobbits are English, because they have a second breakfast. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-tea-time/392086/26 "2007-02-14T14:38:57Z")
[QUOTE=glee] You can tell hobbits are English, because they have a second breakfast. 🙂 [/QUOTE] And they have hairy toes (cite: Bored of the Rings - true) ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-tea-time/392086/27 "2007-02-14T16:19:43Z")
[QUOTE=One And Only Wanderers] does no one else have supper? Do i come from a family of freaks? Northern phenomenon only? [/QUOTE] Well I’m here in sunny Manchester just a few miles from grim Bolton. Supper has been replaced by snacks my good man. As an aside I unnerstand that electricity and inside toilets are soon to be installed in certain Bolton domiciles. Of course this could be just a vicious rumour started by big Sam ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-tea-time/392086/28 "2007-02-14T16:57:06Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] Well I’m here in sunny Manchester just a few miles from grim Bolton. Supper has been replaced by snacks my good man. As an aside I unnerstand that electricity and inside toilets are soon to be installed in certain Bolton domiciles. Of course this could be just a vicious rumour started by big Sam [/QUOTE] ah, but I’m not a boltonian 😉 I’m a transplanted Yorkshireman. Also I’ve heard that inside toilets are unhygienic and make you soft. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-tea-time/392086/29 "2007-02-14T17:18:34Z")
When I visited a Sheffield friend, we had tea, which was what I would call dinner, and involved meat and Yorkshire puddings and no actual tea. How does that fit in? ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-tea-time/392086/30 "2007-02-14T17:26:49Z")
[QUOTE=dangermom] When I visited a Sheffield friend, we had tea, which was what I would call dinner, and involved meat and Yorkshire puddings and no actual tea. How does that fit in? [/QUOTE] That would be a High Tea. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-tea-time/392086.md?page=1)