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Lunch/Dinner/Supper/Tea?!


Jav_NE

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I always thought this was one of those weird manifestations of the class system. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner if you're a bit more middle class and Breakfast, Dinner, Tea is you're less posh. Then again it might be a bit north/south as well, I've noticed no one down here call the evening meal 'Tea'.

 

Personally I don't mind what the midday meal is called but I call the evening meal dinner. Tea just doesn't sound as nice I guess?

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It's weird that so many people are saying that "tea" is a northern thing, as I've always lived down south, I haven't got any northerners in my family at all, yet my family, and practically everyone I know, will use "tea-time" and "dinner-time" interchangeably, I don't really think down here that one is posher or the other or anything.

 

Lunch is definitely lunch though. Would very very very rarely call it dinner, if I was having a big meal maybe, but then i'd be more likely to call it "dinner at lunch" than just dinner!

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Calling dinner dinner is definitely not a class or a posh thing. Well it's not when you're from south east London anyway. Have you heard us speak?

 

Dinna.

 

That's a very good point actually.

 

Although I can't imagine a truly posh person ever calling it tea.

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That's a very good point actually.

 

Although I can't imagine a truly posh person ever calling it tea.

 

Where as I can for example; "shall we go for tea at the Ritz?"

 

Rather than; "what you want for dinna?".

 

::shrug:

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Where as I can for example; "shall we go for tea at the Ritz?"

 

Rather than; "what you want for dinna?".

 

::shrug:

 

Yeah but they would actually mean Tea, the drink, surely?

 

'Afternoon tea' is like a whole 'nother thing innit.

Edited by ipaul
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It's weird that so many people are saying that "tea" is a northern thing, as I've always lived down south, I haven't got any northerners in my family at all, yet my family, and practically everyone I know, will use "tea-time" and "dinner-time" interchangeably, I don't really think down here that one is posher or the other or anything.

East Midlands Massive here giving it tea style.

 

We even used it in some nursery rhyme was sang at the end of infant school

#At half past three

We go home for our tea

And get home for a quarter to four...#

 

I've forgotten the rest.

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East Midlands Massive here giving it tea style.

 

We even used it in some nursery rhyme was sang at the end of infant school

#At half past three

We go home for our tea

And get home for a quarter to four...#

 

I've forgotten the rest.

 

Oh I remember that! Although I think ours was 'home for tea/ at half past three'. Busting some rhymes, yo.

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On the posh thing, is this one of those things that people think the other one is posher?

 

I find that with scone. I pronounce it to rhyme with cone, and consider rhyming it with gone to be the posher variant. But everyone who rhymes it with gone thinks cone is the posher.

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In Danish, the common words for the three major meals of the day are "morgenmad", "middagsmad" and "aftensmad", which literally translate to "morning food", "midday food" and "evening food", respectively. :heh: But funnily enough it's also quite common to call the evening meal "middagsmad" (or more commonly just "middag", "midday"), which is due to the midday meal originally having been the largest (and often the only hot) meal of the day; once the evening meal became the largest, the term simply followed. For that reason it has connotations of a hot meal in my mind. To avoid confusion we also have a separate word for the midday meal, "frokost", which is the word I'd use to translate "lunch"; it carries connotations of a cold meal in the vein of a sandwich in my mind.

 

"Tetid" ("tea time") or more commonly "kaffetid" ("coffee time") - both also often used without the "tid" ("time") part - is always in the afternoon ("eftermiddagste/-kaffe", "afternoon tea/coffe" or literally "after midday tea/coffee") and/or the late evening ("aftente/-kaffe", "evening tea/coffee"), i.e. separate from and later than the evening meal.

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On the posh thing, is this one of those things that people think the other one is posher?

 

I find that with scone. I pronounce it to rhyme with cone, and consider rhyming it with gone to be the posher variant. But everyone who rhymes it with gone thinks cone is the posher.

 

Totes with you on this one, though my scone/scon issue is more the fact that IT'S MAGIC FUCKING E. Gone and done are not nouns.

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Saying dinner for tea, to me, sounds like you're about to eat dog food out of a bowl. Here boy, din dins. Just weird.

 

BUT WHY IS IT HIS DINDINS EH?!

 

Or do you call your lunch your dinner? I still can't get over that.

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BUT WHY IS IT HIS DINDINS EH?!

 

Or do you call your lunch your dinner? I still can't get over that.

 

Dunno. Just seems more normal. At school the early afternoon catering staff were always called dinner ladies where I'm from, not lunch ladies lol. Dinner, dog's dinner.

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Dunno. Just seems more normal. At school the early afternoon catering staff were always called dinner ladies where I'm from, not lunch ladies lol. Dinner, dog's dinner.

 

Yeah we did have the same, but the time was referred to as lunchtime/lunch break - never dinner. Always took a packed lunch to school, too.

 

Have we figured out yet whether this is a northern or southern or somewhere elsern thing yet?

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Yeah we did have the same, but the time was referred to as lunchtime/lunch break - never dinner. Always took a packed lunch to school, too.

 

Have we figured out yet whether this is a northern or southern or somewhere elsern thing yet?

 

My Mum and her family come from the North. As a result, I've always been taught it was breakfast, dinner and tea. Even then, when growing up in Wales, we referred to dinnertime as dinnertime, not this lunchtime bollocks.

 

It's only when moving to Brighton and then Bournemouth that I've heard people call the three main meals Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Elevenses? Supper? Afternoon tea?

 

My meals go:

 

Breakfast

Snack

Dinner

Snack

Tea

Snack

 

Calories for muscles!

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My Mum and her family come from the North. As a result, I've always been taught it was breakfast, dinner and tea. Even then, when growing up in Wales, we referred to dinnertime as dinnertime, not this lunchtime bollocks.

 

Where did you go to school! Was it in a cave?

 

( i dont really mean that as it's a little mean)

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Tea goes in a cup not on a friggin plate!

 

breakfast lunch dinner!

 

Apparently people used to pour tea onto a saucer and back again to cool it down.

 

Not sure if that's relevant, but I've always found it odd.

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Where did you go to school! Was it in a cave?

 

( i dont really mean that as it's a little mean)

 

It's too late, your words have cut me like a knife. :(

 

Definitely not a cave, or anywhere in the valleys. It shouldn't even count as Wales. It's just past the border.

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Breakfast (Pequeno-Almoço)

Morning Snack (Lanche da Manhã)

Lunch (Almoço)

Snack (Lanche)

Dinner (Jantar)

Supper/Night Snack (Ceia / Lanche da Noite)

 

Of course. I'm always finding something eat.

 

Uncanny_zps366b8e9f.jpg

 

At least I got this pic out of all of this.

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