Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Dinner vs Supper

From Wide Open Eats:
When you were a child, were you called in for supper or dinner? Even as interest in the term “supper” has faded, it turns out that there is actually a difference between supper and dinner. Of course, if you were called in for supper, you know this difference well, but if you were from a dinner family, it might not be so obvious. My father’s family from Kentucky and Virginia both referred to it as supper, while my mother’s family from Maryland referred to it as dinner. While many would be apt to say that supper is an especially Southern thing, that’s simply not the case. Let’s start with the basics of the big meal to tackle the dinner/supper conundrum.

Dinner does not imply a time of day and simply references the main meal, or the largest meal, of the day. One can eat dinner at any time, and since there is no time implied (afternoon or evening), dinner has become the modern catch-all term for the evening meal. As Dictionary.com points out, “the word ‘dinner’ comes from the Vulgar Latin word disjējūnāre, meaning ‘to break one’s fast.'” While this is most closely related to breakfast in English, the meaning of dinner still influences how we use it and it has become the most popular word for the largest meal eaten of the day. (Read more.)
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