Lunch or Dinner Time

[MikeG]

I love the way people get so affirmative about this. It's hilarious! THIS, they proclaim, IS THE ONLY TRUE ANSWER. It's almost as if there is no such thing as social class or regional variation in Britain. My way is the only way. End of.

And they'll say this whilst sitting on their settee in their sitting room, not a sofa in the lounge, without the slightest sense of irony. Some will wipe their mouths after a meal on a napkin. Some will use a serviette. Some, I suspect, will use their sleeves and be proud of it. Some people, believe it or not, refer to the loo as a lavatory! I mean, would you believe that, really?

The meal-name thing is as much social class as regional variation, and if you really want to learn a little more about all this stuff, have a read of "Watching the English" by Kate Fox. You might find yourself laughing more at yourself than others.

 

[MontyVeda]

Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner. In that order, case closed.

yeah but... you're french.

 

[keithmac]

As people have already mentioned, you don't get "lunch ladies" at school.

End of debate right there..

 

[keithmac]

This is the only place in 41 years I have ever heard or seen "Christmas Lunch".

 

[swee'pea99]

The meal-name thing is as much social class as regional variation

That's because they're essentially the same thing: the northern wastelands have been left to the poor and huddled masses (ie, the working and oftenasnot notworking classes); the middle classes choose to live in the south, for obvious reasons.

 

[PK99]

The historical spin on the Lunch/Dinner difference is that Dinner was always the main meal of the day and was eaten while there was good daylight. From the 18th into the 19th century as cities developed (primarily London) and candles became cheaper and gaslight introduced people began taking a "lunch" into work for the middle of the day and eating their main meal of the day AKA Dinner in the early evening. In rural/agricultural areas the main meal AKA Dinner remained in the middle of the day.

Hence both the North/South and Working class/Middle class differences in terminology.

As physical and class mobility blurred the class distinctions, so too became blurred the geographical and class meal time terminology.

 

[Markymark]

That's because they're essentially the same thing: the northern wastelands have been left to the poor and huddled masses (ie, the working and oftenasnot notworking classes); the middle classes choose to live in the south, for obvious reasons.

My boy....

 

[Milkfloat]

As people have already mentioned, you don't get "lunch ladies" at school.

End of debate right there..

Here they are called 'Midday Supervisors' or 'Lunchtime Supervisors'. Some are know as 'Chefs'.

 

[Randomnerd]

Only started having lunch after university days. Very rarely have it now, unless going “out for Sunday lunch”.
As others have it, it’s complex.
I’m from Yorkshire: dinner at noon, or snap if at work and brought from home; tea at, say, five p.m., if it’s cold meat or something for children. If your father is home and he had snap, he will be eating a hot dinner. If he’s having tea, it’s either a) a Sunday b) a visit from a relative or c) he’s on strike again and we can’t afford dinner. Supper is potted meat or cheese or polony sausage after seven p.m. and before bed, often to absorb beer drunk by him after “your father’s” dinner before bed.
Get this though. When I started working outside in forestry, all food was “drinkings” if eaten at work. We had three “drinkings” a day. Nine a.m., a short one, about the length of a sandwich. Twelve noon, a longer one about half a flask of tea long. Two p.m. a very quick “drinking” to gulp down anything left over. The third was cut at a specific point in winter, when we went home earlier (guided by whether or not we could see in the sawmill.)

 

[MikeG]

That's because they're essentially the same thing: the northern wastelands have been left to the poor and huddled masses (ie, the working and oftenasnot notworking classes); the middle classes choose to live in the south, for obvious reasons.

Sorry.......you think that social class has got something to do with geographical location?

How cute.

 

[User10119]

That's because they're essentially the same thing: the northern wastelands have been left to the poor and huddled masses (ie, the working and oftenasnot notworking classes); the middle classes choose to live in the south, for obvious reasons.

Oh - do you mean the independently wealthy? But that doesn't make sense - they wouldn't be part of the 'poor and huddled masses', would they?

 

[MontyVeda]

Here they are called 'Midday Supervisors' or 'Lunchtime Supervisors'. Some are know as 'Chefs'.

my word... the south is far more poncier than i ever imagined.

 

[Nigeyy]

Help me i'm totally f#%&ed up.

Grew up up in Sheffield (none of your Southern softie jobbies there) with breakfast, dinner and tea.
Moved to the south to have breakfast, lunch and dinner (Geoff Boycott's spittle caused a major hurricane weather alert and paralyzed the home counties)
Now in the USA and have breakfast, lunch and supper.....

Good grief, just imagine how someone learning English can get confused let alone with the other intricacies of the English language!

 

[User10119]

my word... the south is far more poncier than i ever imagined.

They are MSAs (Midday Supervisory Assistants) up here here in my bit of Northern England - at leat on the job ads and the contracts. Everyone calls them dinner ladies though. Even, quite often, the ones who are men.

 

[Maenchi]

Here they are called 'Midday Supervisors' or 'Lunchtime Supervisors'. Some are know as 'Chefs'.

i guess that's a currently fashionable gender neutral description, or are there 'dinner men /gentlemen', these days ?