Lunch/Dinner/Supper/Tea?!

[Ville]

This thread is just crazy. So much fighting and hostility over mere food-time names... o_O

 

Breakfast = Aamupala, 'morning bit / snack'

Lunch = Lounas, also means 'southwest' in Finnish

Dinner = Päivällinen, 'day meal'

Supper = Iltapala, 'evening snack'

 

+

 

Snack = Välipala, 'middle bit / snack'

 

And yes, no tea time. People here drink coffee like it was the elixir of life...

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

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.

 

I approve of this amount of snacks.

[Rummy]

This thread is just crazy. So much fighting and hostility over mere food-time names... o_O

 

Breakfast = Aamupala, 'morning bit / snack'

Lunch = Lounas, also means 'southwest' in Finnish

Dinner = Päivällinen, 'day meal'

Supper = Iltapala, 'evening snack'

 

+

 

Snack = Välipala, 'middle bit / snack'

 

And yes, no tea time. People here drink coffee like it was the elixir of life...

 

Ahhh, tis all jovial. I think. Interesting that other languages mentioned seemed to be a bit more time literal, makes me wonder where all our various english words for them came from.

[Ville]

Ahhh, tis all jovial. I think. Interesting that other languages mentioned seemed to be a bit more time literal, makes me wonder where all our various english words for them came from.

 

Well, I wasn't exactly that serious myself, but...who knows, it might just be the start of WWIII. This one little thread on N-E... o_O

 

Anyway, here are some etymology descriptions I found:

 

breakfast (n.)

 

mid-15c., from break (v.) + fast (n.). The verb is recorded from 1670s. Related: Breakfasted; breakfasting.

 

Spanish almuerzo "lunch," but formerly and still locally "breakfast," is from Latin admorsus, pp. of admordere "to bite into," from ad- "to" + mordere "to bite." In common with almuerzo, words for "breakfast" tend over time to shift in meaning toward "lunch;" cf. French déjeuner "breakfast," later "lunch" (equivalent of Spanish desayuno "breakfast"), both from Vulgar Latin *disieiunare "to breakfast," from Latin dis- + ieiunare, jejunare "fast" (see jejune; also cf. dine). German Frühstück is from Middle High German vruostücke, literally "early bit." Old English had morgenmete "morning meal."

Break fast, i.e. the night without food.

 

lunch (n.)

 

"mid-day repast," 1786, shortened form of luncheon (q.v.). The verb meaning "to take to lunch" (said to be from the noun) also is attested from 1786:

PRATTLE. I always to be ſure, makes a point to keep up the dignity of the family I lives in. Wou'd you take a more ſolid refreſhment?--Have you lunch'd, Mr. Bribe?

 

BRIBE. Lunch'd O dear! Permit me, my dear Mrs. Prattle, to refreſh my sponge, upon the honey dew that clings to your raviſhing pouters. O! Mrs. Prattle, this ſhall be my lunch. (kiſſes)

 

["The Mode," in William Davies' "Plays Written for a Private Theatre," London, 1786]

But as late as 1817 the only definition of lunch in Webster's is "a large piece of food." OED says in 1820s the word "was regarded either as a vulgarism, or as a fashionable affectation." Related: Lunched; lunching. Lunch money is attested from 1868; lunch-time (n.) is from 1821; lunch hour is from 1840. Slang phrase out to lunch "insane, stupid, clueless" first recorded 1955, on notion of being "not there." Old English had nonmete "afternoon meal," literally "noon-meat."

 

luncheon (n.)

 

"light repast between mealtimes," 1650s (lunching; spelling luncheon by 1706); earlier "thick piece, hunk," 1570s (luncheon), of uncertain origin. Perhaps northern English dialectal lunch "hunk of bread or cheese" (1580s; probably from Spanish lonja "a slice," literally "loin"), blended with or influenced by nuncheon (Middle English nonechenche, mid-14c.) "light mid-day meal," from none "noon" (see noon) + schench "drink," from Old English scenc, from scencan "pour out."

 

Despite the form lunching in the 1650s source OED discounts that it possibly could be from lunch (v.), which is much later. It suggests perhaps an analogy with truncheon, etc. Especially in reference to an early afternoon meal eaten by those who have a noontime dinner.

Noon drink.

 

dinner (n.)

 

c.1300, from Old French disner (11c.), originally "breakfast," later "lunch," noun use of infinitive disner (see dine). Always used in English for the main meal of the day; shift from midday to evening began with the fashionable classes. Childish reduplication din-din is attested from 1905.

 

dine (v.) late 13c., from Old French disner (Modern French dîner) "to dine, eat, have a meal," originally "take the first meal of the day," from stem of Gallo-Romance *desjunare "to break one's fast," from Vulgar Latin *disjejunare, from dis- "undo" (see dis-) + Late Latin jejunare "to fast," from Latin iejunus "fasting, hungry" (see jejune).

Breaking fast (again). Was the main meal at noon, then got switched to later by fashionable hipster classes.

 

supper (n.)

 

late 13c., "the last meal of the day," from Old French super "supper," noun use of super "to eat the evening meal," which is of Germanic origin (see sup (v.1)).

Formerly, the last of the three meals of the day (breakfast, dinner, and supper); now applied to the last substantial meal of the day when dinner is taken in the middle of the day, or to a late meal following an early evening dinner. Supper is usually a less formal meal than late dinner. [OED]

Applied since c.1300 to the last meal of Christ.

 

sup (v.1) "eat the evening meal," late 13c., from Old French super, which probably is from soupe "broth" (see soup), until recently still the traditional evening meal of French workers.sup (v.2) "sip," Old English supan (West Saxon), suppan, supian (Northumbrian) "to sip, swallow," from Proto-Germanic *supanan (cf. Old Norse supa "to sip, drink," Middle Low German supen, Dutch zuipen "to drink, tipple, booze," Old High German sufan, German saufen "to drink, booze"), from PIE *sub-, from root *seue- "to take liquid" (cf. Sanskrit sunoti "presses out juice," soma; Avestan haoma, Persian hom "juice;" Greek huetos "rain," huein "to rain;" Latin sugere "to suck," succus "juice, sap;" Lithuanian sula "flowing sap;" Old Church Slavonic soku "sap," susati "suck;" Middle Irish suth "sap;" Old English seaw "sap").

Soup(er).

 

snack (v.)

 

c.1300, "to bite or snap" (of a dog), probably from Middle Dutch snacken "to snatch, chatter" (see snatch (v.)). The meaning "have a mere bite or morsel, eat a light meal" is first attested 1807. Related: Snacked; snacking.

Chatting food xD

[Jonnas]

Almoço (Lunch) has the same origin as the Spanish word.

Pequeno-Almoço (Breakfast) literally means "Small-Lunch"

Jantar (Dinner) meant the midday/evening meal in Latin (Jantare)

Ceia (Supper) is another word for "Jantare" in both Latin and Spanish (Cena)

Lanche (Snack) is derived from the English word "Lunch".

 

Etymology is interesting.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Just looked up "frokost" ("lunch"), and as suspected it's from the German "vrokost", "vro" meaning "early" and "kost" (which we still have in Danish) meaning "meal".

[Jonnas]

Is that old German? "Early" is "Früh", and I haven't heard the word "Kost", nor have I heard any specific word for "meal".

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Ah, yes, probably should've clarified that; I suspected it was German, and it turned out to be Middle Low German, so I ended up skipping the middle part.