Regional question: Is your late meal called dinner or supper?

[Joe Fields]

Or something else, like post afternoon victuals?

[bicentennial_baby]

1. Both

Depending on whether it's me or my parents, or whoever. I call it Dinner, my Mom calls it Supper... :shrug:

[Critters2]

2. Supper, unless it's formal or special in some way. Then it's dinner.

But such a dinner could be at noon, too. As in "Sunday Dinner".

[MissMillie]

17. yeah, I think that's right for me too

I had no idea it was a regional thing

[supernova]

23. Same here

"Dinner" in English simply means the biggest, most formal meal of the day. And that can be lunchtime (Sunday Dinner) or evening.

[Rising Phoenix]

3. my Irish mom calls it supper

my siblings and I all call it dinner, with an occasional slip up....

of course my mom still calls jeans dungerees

and soda, tonic

hehe

[Joe Fields]

6. I like your mom.

:hi:

[Rising Phoenix]

9. yeah

she is pretty cool....I am working on finding her a boyfriend...lol

[querelle]

4. Dinner Is Early Evening

Supper is a meal around midnight.

Q

[Kajsa]

5. Dinner.

occasionally I will hear it referred to
as supper.

:hi:

[mitchum]

7. Dinner, but supper on Sundays

[Joe Fields]

11. Is that because you eat early on Sundays?

[mitchum]

15. No, it's the weirdest thing...

growing up in my mom and dad's house, the evening meal every night of the week was always called supper, but since I've been an adult I only call the Sunday evening meal supper. That may even be a highfalutin' term for something that often consists of cold pizza and bridge mix. Obviously, I use the term "adult" loosely :)

[KitchenWitch]

8. FOOOOOOOD NOW!

:rofl:

[Joe Fields]

13. Makes a person hungreeeee, don't it?

:hi:

[Kajsa]

27. You are a nut, KW!

But you're a lovable nut!

:rofl: :pals:

[KitchenWitch]

40. mmmm nuts!

:rofl:

[siouxsiecreamcheese]

10. always called it supper

I'm from NY and I still call it supper down here in SC. Dinner seems too fancy-shmancy.

[Inchworm]

Supper -Dinner was lunch

It took me quite a while to get used to that when I left home.

:hi:

[Lex]

29. yep

me too

[Inchworm]

37. Thank the goodness!

I wandered all over and noone ever understood that. Unless they were from the hills of Carolina.

Where did you pick it up?

:hi:

[Lex]

38. "Down east" North Carolina.

Southeast of Raleigh. When I go home to see the family, I still get confused about which meal my Mom is talking about. Mom: "We're having meatloaf for dinner." Me nowdays: "Lunch dinner or supper dinner?"

:hi:

[Inchworm]

39. Too dang funny!

I'm up in Ashe county(NW corner of NC). I have had the same problem all my life :D

:toast:

[wildhorses]

12. supper

:hi:

[Joe Fields]

21. ~

;-)

[idgiehkt]

30. right....

there's a right way and a wrong way, and the right way is 'supper'.

:rofl: :hi:

[no name no slogan]

14. I think it's more country vs. urban

My ex-wife, who was raised on a farm, always called the middle meal dinner. My family always called the late meal dinner.

[Joe Fields]

16. That's the way it was in my family.

[Left Is Write]

18. I was raised with supper.

"Dinner" is more formal, like "going out to dinner," "Sunday dinner," or "Christmas dinner," or it signifies the main (noon) meal of the day.

My parents were raised in rural Western Minnesota (my father on a farm and my mother in town); Mom says the farmers and farm hands used to have breakfast, forenoon's lunch, dinner, afternoon's lunch, and supper. Dinner was the big noon meal that fueled all that hard work.

My father's aunts always called any meal that was not breakfast, dinner, or supper "lunch", no matter what time of the day it was served. If you visited at 7:30pm, you were offered "a little lunch". (Cheese sandwiches, cookies, coffee - something like that.)

When I was a kid (I was raised in the Minneapolis area), we had breakfast, lunch, and supper, with the "dinner" exceptions noted above.

My husband, who was also raised in the Minneapolis area, had breakfast, lunch and dinner. His mother was raised in Illinois.

I've converted him to "supper." :D

[Goblinmonger]

34. I was raised in rural Eastern North Dakota

and had the same distinctions as your parents (where in Western MN?).

[WritingIsMyReligion]

19. Dinner usually. Sometimes supper. It's pretty variable.

:)

[mainegreen]

20. Both. But a formal meal can never be supper, only dinner. n/t

[dajoki]

22. Supper or Dinner or both

:shrug:

[BarenakedLady]

24. Either

They are interchangeable to me.

[S n o w b a l l]

25. Dinner

I guess it is a regional thing. I never heard it called supper in LA, but in IN, my mom does and many others around here. I still call it breakfast, lunch & dinner.

[philosophie_en_rose]

26. Usually Dinner.

Sometimes just "food" - as in "I need some food" or "Let's get some food."

I never call dinner supper. It seems to be a regional thing, like "pop" versus "soda."

[Adsos Letter]

28. Dinner

[suzbaby]

31. Dinner. Always dinner.

I've never really used the term supper. I'm from Alaska....am I weird? :shrug:

[SeattleGirl]

32. Dinner. n/t

[MilesColtrane]

33. Ever wonder why there's a name for a meal between breakfast and lunch,

but none for the one between lunch and dinner?

I demand the official recognition of Dunch.

[Goblinmonger]

35. We call it lupper

of course we call the evening meal supper, so ymwv

[NaturalHigh]

36. I usually say dinner.

My folks still say supper. Either or.

[LSK]

41. Dinner - from Chicagoland

[u4ic]

42. Either

Dinner is a more formal term here.

[Bucky]

43. I go out for dinner, but my daughter has to be home in time for supper.

Unless she's eating out with friends, then I just whip myself up some grub.

So what region is supposed to say "grub"?
.

[DFW]

44. Something else:

Abendbrot or Abendessen

(My wife is from Germany, so we speak German at home)

[xchrom]

45. for us -- supper is about time.

dinner is in the evening -- supper which can be a big elaborate affair happens earlier.

like coming home from church to a roast or ham in oven.

everyone takes their time getting the meal ready -- rolls, taters, cole slaw, corn -- that's supper.

5:00 or later -- that's dinner.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

46. Dinner. only Dinner.

But if someone yelled "Supper's ready!", I'd understand and come running.

:hi:

[DuaneBidoux]

47. Supper

I grew up in Kansas now live in Houston. My family always has called it supper (my dad grew up in Arkansas, my mom in Kansas). It seems to me however that many around me call it dinner.

[raccoon]

48. I don't really know any more. When I grew up, it was supper.

Then, with an influx of people from other states and/or the influence of the TV, you heard,

Breakfast, lunch, dinner

instead of

Breakfast, dinner, supper.

One of my sibs refers to "the noon meal" to avoid confusion. I kid you not.

[Deep13]

49. Supper. Dinner is a big, mid-day meal.

My wife calls it tea-time.

[Orsino]

50. Both. n/t

[RamboLiberal]

51. Growing up in a blue collar family near Pittsburgh in 50s-60s

It was supper served around 4-5 or if dad was on day shift(8-4) at the steel mill as soon as he got home. Dinner was that rare meal you went out for, usually when you were traveling. And if I wasn't drinking milk I'd have pop with supper. And lunch when I was out of school and we were at the cottage was always at noon.

[helderheid]

52. dinner or "eten tijd"

[DFW]

53. Eten tijd?

That's just Dutch for "time to eat." I am about an hour from
the Dutch border, and go there frequently, but I've never
heard that used. Where are your folks from that they use such
an expression?

[helderheid]

54. My husband is Dutch

:hi:

[DFW]

56. Ah, that explains it!

Well, in that case, groetjes, en Nederland is er nog!

[helderheid]

57. Geweldig! Zit jij in Belgie?

[DFW]

59. Nee, in Duitsland, misschien een uur van de grens

Tien km van Düsseldorf

[helderheid]

60. Wat is jou Nederlands goed, zeg!!

[DFW]

62. Maar natuurlijk!

Ik ben zo vaak in Nederland, dat is allen ardig, dat ik ietsje Nederlands
zo leren, meent jij niet?

[NewWaveChick1981]

55. Either. We use the terms "dinner" and "supper" interchangeably.

:hi:

[jgraz]

58. I call it "bourbon"

But maybe that's just me.

[krispos42]

61. Dinner

breakfast, lunch, dinner.

On holidays "dinner" became the big afternoon meal, and an evening meal later on became "something to eat".