tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post1863203554720245707..comments2024-03-16T00:21:43.240+00:00Comments on Separated by a Common Language: high tealynneguisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-47607619715899373182021-11-06T15:33:40.515+00:002021-11-06T15:33:40.515+00:00In Denmark, some people will ask you to come to th...In Denmark, some people will ask you to come to their house for lunch, coffee, or dinner, and then expect you to understand that they mean a _very specific_ hour - I think lunch = noon, coffee = 3 pm, and dinner = 6 pm, but I'm not sure about that. This is by no means universal, though - I'm a native Dane and have lived here all my life, but was well into my 40'es before I understood what was going on. Until then, it caused lots of confusion and misunderstanding: I'd understand "lunch" and "dinner" as _approximate_ times - lunch = around midday, and dinner = late afternoon/early evening - and thus end up arriving either too early or too late, and to be invited for coffee to me meant only that I could expect to be served coffee and cake, but not an actual meal, and would tell me nothing about the time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-23827112464227228252020-10-26T18:42:18.807+00:002020-10-26T18:42:18.807+00:00In the years that have passed since this post was ...In the years that have passed since this post was first published, there has been a rise in rather grand "afternoon teas" served by hotels and posh (and not-so-posh) restaurants. You get cake stands filled with finger sandwiches, cakes, and scones with cream and jam, and a cup of tea (or coffee), plus, if you are pushing the boat out, a glass of champagne. It is an enjoyable event and you don't need supper afterwards! You just google "Afternoon tea in London" to get a very great many results!Mrs Redboots (Annabel Smyth)https://www.blogger.com/profile/11270027663691257254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-88565483632162648962014-11-06T03:27:43.541+00:002014-11-06T03:27:43.541+00:00OK, I am a Kiwi, and we have as many differences h...OK, I am a Kiwi, and we have as many differences here, but this is my take:<br />Breakfast is always first thing.<br />Lunch is always at midday or thereabouts and tea is always in the evening, but they are similar sorts of meals. <br />Dinner can be at midday or in the evening or in the middle of the afternoon at Xmas, but is always a substantial meal, the main one of the day.<br />Supper is a light snack around bedtime, or, when I was a child and my father did evening overtime, when Dad got home from work. On those days we would have lunch and tea and supper, but no dinner. "No need for a heavy cooked meal when your father is away" (Scottish stepmother). Dad, on the other hand, DID require extra nourishment, hence the supper, (often cheese toasties, AmE grilled cheese") which we never got at any other time.<br />Our school version of elevenses was called "playlunch", because we ate it at playtime. Scottish stepmother called it "your piece".<br />When ladies came to visit in the afternoon, Mum got out the best china, made cream cakes, and fed them "afternoon tea". "Morning tea" was like play lunch, except at home and with a cuppa. It is not a "piece" unless eaten away from home as far as I can figure out.Bronwynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08347795137256267761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-74160854135513250382014-04-28T17:44:05.245+01:002014-04-28T17:44:05.245+01:00[Part Two]
AFTERNOON TEA
Similar to "eleven...[Part Two]<br /><br />AFTERNOON TEA<br /><br />Similar to "elevenses" in conveying the idea of a meal designed more to alleviate the boredom of the non-working classes than to provide essential nourishment. The French call it "le five o'clock", though to me four o'clock seems more like the natural time. Cucumber sandwiches followed by fancy individual cakes and all accompanied by some expensive variety of tea is what I'd expect here. <br /><br />HIGH TEA<br /><br />Not a term that's ever really figured in my own usage, though I recognize it as referring to "tea" in the sense that I grew up using it (see below), as opposed to the much less substantial "afternoon tea" described above. The term has Northern- / Scottish-English connotations for me, though I'm not sure why.<br /><br />TEA<br /><br />One of the two main meals of the day -- though normally lacking a "cooked" element on Sundays, given the late timing, and very substantial nature, of the earlier Sunday dinner. Even so, Sunday tea, in my childhood days, was not at all a skimpy meal: there would be cold meat (pork pie / ham / etc.) as well as a salad (which had to be eaten before you could move onto other items more appealing to a young palate), followed by a sweet course (trifle / jelly / blancmange / etc.) <br /><br />DINNER (II)<br /><br />As can be implied from what I've written above, the use of "dinner" to denote an evening meal is alien to the tradition in which I grew up, even though I've come to recognize the usage now, of course -- perhaps especially under the influence of French "dîner" (though I understand that even in France "dîner" has undergone a shift over time from meaning "midday meal" to signifying "evening meal" (earlier: souper).<br /><br />EVENING MEAL<br /><br />Like "midday meal", a class-neutral word ("This supplement is best taken after your evening meal"): not likely to be used in any informal conversation.<br /><br />SUPPER<br /><br />For me, supper is a light snack taken just before bedtime. However, I seem to be aware that posh people who -- because they were attending the theatre or a concert in the early evening -- couldn't have their dinner (i.e. evening meal) at home, would call a full evening meal eaten in a restaurant "supper". That may be dated, though: I can't find many modern references. "Supper", though, does appear to remain a term in middle- and upper-class usage for a fairly substantial though perhaps less formal (evening) dinner.<br />Kevinhttp://clwbffilmiaupontardawe.weebly.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-53172797648386661362014-04-28T17:40:02.062+01:002014-04-28T17:40:02.062+01:00This what-do-you-call-your-meals? topic is one tha...This what-do-you-call-your-meals? topic is one that seems to have been around ever since the net started (and, in other discussions, even well before THAT), so I'm surprised to see that I haven't contributed to this thread earlier. (If I have, and simply missed it, apologies in advance for any repetition.)<br /><br />Here's my take on some of the terms mentioned above. My background is British (South Warwickshire) Anglo-Irish working-class, grew up to become "middle-class" professional, though -- like many of such provenance -- I always feel uncomfortable about accepting the middle-class label:<br /><br />BREAKFAST <br /><br />The least controversial meal name: it's simply the first meal of the day (providing you don't get up so late that to take breakfast within hailing-distance of a promised miiday meal would be pigging it).<br /><br />BRUNCH<br /><br />Strikes me as an Americanism, even though Wikipedia tells me that it "originated in England in the late 1800s" [as late as <br /><br />1895, according to the OED] -- mainly because I chiefly associate it with American catering establishments. Does anyone ever <br /><br />have "brunch" (as opposed to a very late breakfast) at home? In a British context it's not a million miles from the commercially offered "all-day-breakfast" which is normally a rather more substantial meal than the everyday breakfast which most people would prepare for themselves at home.<br /><br />ELEVENSES<br /><br />A mid-morning snack taken (in my consciousness) by people of a higher and more leisurely social class than any I've ever belonged to. To me it suggests china teacups, crooked little fingers, and insubstantial biscuits.<br /><br />Now, as a schoolchild (at least up till the age of 11, after which I went to the "posh" grammar school -- i.e., for American readers, selective secondary school), I WAS provided with a mid-morning snack (two or three biscuits, perhaps, or a jam sandwich) to take with me to school, but this we all called ...lunch! (After many years of thinking that I must have been suffering from False Memory Syndrome, one or two others, at least, have corroborated this usage.)<br /><br />LUNCH<br /><br />As outlined above, in my childhood this never meant the main midday meal. In fact it took me very many years to even get used to the idea that other people called their main meal at this time "lunch". "Sunday lunch" still sounds wrong to me. Catering establishments may offer what they call "Sunday lunch", but at home it's Sunday dinner (eaten, in line with the generally <br /><br />slower pace of that day, at about 2 p.m.). "Christmas lunch" sounds even more absurd: "lunch" will never lose its connotations of insubstantialness for me!<br /><br />LUNCHEON<br /><br />Simply, the posh word for "lunch" (i.e. midday dinner), Can't recall anyone ever SAYING this word, though you'd see it <br /><br />printed on middle-and-upper-class menus.<br /><br />DINNER (I)<br /><br />The main midday meal when I was grwoing up; but see also DINNER (II) below.<br /><br />MIDDAY MEAL<br /><br />The class-neutral word. You'd never actually say the likes of "Perhaps we could have a midday meal together" but the term is used in writing (e.g. "The children receive a nourishing midday meal").<br /><br />[End of Part I}Kevinhttp://clwbffilmiaupontardawe.weebly.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-34599924154506195092014-04-23T09:38:21.700+01:002014-04-23T09:38:21.700+01:00David,
in that sense the Scottish "supper&qu...David,<br /><br />in that sense the Scottish "supper" is similar to the MacDonalds "meal" meaning that there are (fries/chips) included, although a "meal" also includes a drink.Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01628722112979043156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-36910824687681902082014-04-10T23:25:59.695+01:002014-04-10T23:25:59.695+01:00Annabel
I believe a "fish supper" is th...Annabel<br /><br /><i>I believe a "fish supper" is the Scottish term for fish and chips, whatever time of day you eat them.</i><br /><br />That's because <i>supper</i> <b>means</b> 'and chips'. If you ask for <i>a Mars bar supper</i> they'll know what you mean.David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-43366829315603552202014-04-10T20:08:33.154+01:002014-04-10T20:08:33.154+01:00P.S. To whoever referred to "fush suppers&quo...P.S. To whoever referred to "fush suppers" - my in-laws in Northern Ireland speak of "fush and chups", and drive "moneys", which always makes me laugh... I believe a "fish supper" is the Scottish term for fish and chips, whatever time of day you eat them.Mrs Redboots (Annabel Smyth)https://www.blogger.com/profile/11270027663691257254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1243988773228965022014-04-10T20:07:21.902+01:002014-04-10T20:07:21.902+01:00Must have missed this post first time around. In ...Must have missed this post first time around. In some parts of the country, one's mid-morning snack (which I grew up calling "elevenses") is called lunch - Angela Brazil, the novelist, has her characters eat their lunch, when she obviously means a mid-morning snack. They then have their dinner at midday, but I don't remember what they have in the evening.<br /><br />My husband is from a farm in Northern Ireland, and he grew up with breakfast, 10-o-clock tea, dinner, 3-o-clock tea, 6-o-clock tea and supper. Only breakfast, dinner and 6-o-clock tea were substantial meals; the others were mainly a hot drink and, usually, a biscuit or piece of cake. <br /><br />I, however, from a farm in Sussex, grew up with breakfast, elevenses, lunch, tea (my evening meal when I was a child - these days just a cup of tea with no food attached), and supper. "Dinner" was more formal, usually my mother gave what she calls a "dinner party".<br /><br />It is all very, very confusing.....Mrs Redboots (Annabel Smyth)https://www.blogger.com/profile/11270027663691257254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-49846364302212864092012-10-30T12:01:16.673+00:002012-10-30T12:01:16.673+00:00vp
The OED slightly distances itself from that et...vp<br /><br />The OED slightly distances itself from that etymology:<br /><br /><i>Generally held to be < late Latin type *disjūnare , for disjejūnāre to breakfast, ...<br /><br />In this view <b>disner</b> contains the same elements ultimately as French <b>déjeuner</b>... </i><br /><br />More to the point, the OED still says of <i>dinner</i><br /><br /><i>The chief meal of the day, eaten originally, and still by the majority of people, about the middle of the day ..., but now, by the professional and fashionable classes, usually in the evening...</i><br /><br />The online edition is word-for-word the same as the 1989 Second Edition. Even then I'd say the use of <i>lunch</i> for the midday meal was far more widespread than the entry suggests.<br /><br />Looking up these words, I was struck by how rare the verb <i>dine</i> has become. OK the verbal noun <i>dining</i> is fit and well in <i>dining room</i> etc and in the (to me) recent <i>fine dining</i>. But when do we use <i>dine</i> except in set expressions such as<br /><br />• <i>dine on caviar and foie gras</i> but not — unless intended facetiously — <i>dine on fish fingers and chips</i><br /><br />• <i>dine out on</i> (a good story)<br /><br />It sounds pretty old-fashioned to speak of <i>dining alone</i>. And there's another old-fashioned use <i>dine with</i>, which ties in with <a href="http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/visiting.html" rel="nofollow">the thread on visiting</a>.David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-65538104286434767192012-10-29T16:33:21.583+00:002012-10-29T16:33:21.583+00:00@David Crosbie
Stimulated by your comment, I look...@David Crosbie<br /><br />Stimulated by your comment, I looked up the etymology of "dinner", which is utterly fascinating. The <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=dine&allowed_in_frame=0" rel="nofollow">Etymonline entry for "dine"</a> reads: <br /><br /><i>from O.Fr. disner (Mod.Fr. 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 V.L. *disjejunare, from dis- "undo" (see dis-) + L.L. jejunare "to fast," from L. jejunus "fasting, hungry."</i><br /><br />So etymologically, "dinner" is a kind of Romance equivalent of English "breakfast", and that was its original meaning in English, but it has gradually moved later, first to the midday meal, and now (generally) to the evening meal. We <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=dinner" rel="nofollow">also read</a> that the "shift from midday to evening began with the fashionable classes"<br />vphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16647609487352038948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-46633431226031880532012-10-29T03:16:12.531+00:002012-10-29T03:16:12.531+00:00One summer vacation is the late 1960's I worke...One summer vacation is the late 1960's I worked on a large construction site. The days were long (when the weather was fine, that is) and the meals breaks were numerous. <i>Breakfast</i> was very early — before we started work, I think. <i>Lunch</i> was a morning break — around the time many people have breakfast. <i>Dinner</i> was, of course, a mid-day break, and the final break was <i>tea</i>. I don't remember a <i>supper</i> break, but I can well believe it happened when overtime stretched on till exceptionally late.<br /><br />Whatever the break, the meals were identical (in my memory, at least) a mug of tea and either a bacon sandwich or an egg sandwich.David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-18291763580659677092012-10-29T02:52:24.187+00:002012-10-29T02:52:24.187+00:00Ed
In the UK "tea" as an evening meal i...Ed<br /><br /><i>In the UK "tea" as an evening meal is not only northern, it's common in the south too but regarded as 'low class'.</i><br /><br />My mother didn't use the word <i>'class'</i>, but I think a translation of what she thought is that <i>high tea</i> — and she actually did use the term — was something the working class ate, except that in Scotland it was also a regular middle class meal.<br /><br />Not that it was unacceptable — it wasn't <i>'common'</i>. If unusual circumstances disrupted the family timetable and some or all of us had to eat a meal with something cooked, my mother would call it <i>'high tea'</i>. She never used the term <i>'afternoon tea'</i> because that was <i>'tea'</i>.<br /><br /><i>Strangely enough though, school lunch is almost always called school dinner, even by people who normally call their midday meal at home lunch.</i><br /><br />School dinners are prepared and served by working-class people — notably <i>'dinner ladies'</i> to a wide range of children in a town or county. Although things may have changed recently, the majority of children in 'state' (AmE 'public') schools in a local authority area have been of working class families — even if particular schools held concentrations of middle-class children who ate <i>'lunch'</i> at home.<br /><br />Another mid-day <i>'dinner'</i> which persisted in middle-class speech is <i>'Christmas Dinner'</i>. I still find it strange to see restaurants offer <i>'Christmas Lunch'</i> menus.David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-6828661335998996522012-10-28T13:19:07.232+00:002012-10-28T13:19:07.232+00:00As a child in South Africa I found it hilarious wh...As a child in South Africa I found it hilarious when my English cousins visited and spoke of "eating tea", as did my South African grandmother. To us it sounded as wrong as "eating orange juice". Tea in South Africa tea only ever refers to the drink itself, sometimes served with biscuits etc.<br /><br />In the UK "tea" as an evening meal is not only northern, it's common in the south too but regarded as 'low class'.<br /><br />Strangely enough though, school lunch is almost always called school dinner, even by people who normally call their midday meal at home lunch.Ednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-12372029812557518302011-04-29T10:59:23.068+01:002011-04-29T10:59:23.068+01:00Pudding and other things have been covered elsewhe...Pudding and other things have been covered elsewhere on the blog. Click on the food/cooking tag to see lots more...lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-47879981579152034142011-04-29T08:58:32.784+01:002011-04-29T08:58:32.784+01:00And that begs the question - what do people call t...And that begs the question - what do people call the non-savoury course? Sweet? Pudding? Dessert? Afters? And how regularly is it an integral part of the meal? Ditto: Starter? And if and when are meals accompanied by alcohol?MaryJagshttp://www.twitter.com/maryjagsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1169031414800106142011-04-29T00:36:08.831+01:002011-04-29T00:36:08.831+01:00I'm middle-class Northern British.
For me, di...I'm middle-class Northern British.<br /><br />For me, dinner is a meal that could be eaten at any time from about noon to well past 10pm, but it's a main (usually cooked) meal. I'd see it as rather working class to say "I had two dinners yesterday" but I know what it means (that both the midday meal and the evening meal were full, cooked meals).<br /><br />Breakfast is always the first meal of the day with one exception - if I have a big fry-up late in the day (like noon) and do not then eat until an evening dinner, then the fry-up is brunch. Brunch strongly implies an intention to eat only two meals that day.<br /><br />Lunch is a light meal taken in the middle of the day - in the "lunch hour" at work, for example. Usually, it would be a sandwich, but a modest one-course cooked meal is still lunch; my colleagues have an excellent tradition of taking each of us out in turn for lunch on our birthday to the guest of honour's choice of nearby restaurant - and splitting the bill between everyone whose birthday it isn't. This is definitely lunch, even though we take a starter too; the menus are the discounted working lunch menus, not the full price ones. There is also "Sunday lunch" which is a specific meal (a roast with all the trimmings) taken in the middle of the day, and specifically on a Sunday.<br /><br />A light evening meal - usually a relatively early one - is tea; this assumes you had a large meal earlier in the day. "Cold cuts" (of meat) are the characteristic tea, but a light cooked meal is perfectly reasonable too.<br /><br />If you've had tea/evening dinner and you want a substantial snack/small meal before going to bed, then that's supper. In my personal experience, that's usually when you've had lunch, then tea, then supper - ie you never had a big meal, so you ended up having three small ones (plus breakfast). Supper is also a takeaway that you eat after a night out (ie after drinking a lot) - the classic one is a kebab.<br /><br />I don't come from an area where supper is used to mean an evening cooked meal, but I do recognise that usage as rather posher than I am.Richard Gadsdenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10545595590359552775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-89995530415868016212011-04-29T00:29:30.033+01:002011-04-29T00:29:30.033+01:00I grew up in the UK and have always called my mid ...I grew up in the UK and have always called my mid meal dinner and afternoon meal tea.. Since moving to the states I try and call mid meal lunch and afternoon meal dinner.. Growing up we always had dinner at noon and was always a hot meal and tea was always sandwiches or salad, with puddings for dessert. I have always referred to hot meals as dinner...feather14https://www.blogger.com/profile/02598748384800564265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-30025810928461558232009-12-15T22:11:40.444+00:002009-12-15T22:11:40.444+00:00I know I'm going off topic by mentioning all t...I know I'm going off topic by mentioning all this Russian stuff, but anyway, until recently there was no such thing as lunch. People would sometimes have first and second breakfast. To this day, in the US, when I pack lunch with me, my non-assimilated relatives call it breakfast (these days I pack breakfast with me too for an extra 10 minutes of sleep). The substantial meal was always dinner and was almost always early, between 12 and 3 pm. We had a separate supper right before bed, something that was considered unhealthy even back then. Many people didn't have supper. Now, the same people who call my lunch breakfast call my 7:30 dinner supper.<br /><br />It's funny that I have two breakfasts and a supper as my three meals according to some people. (I do drink tea or milk immediately before bedtime, but don't accompany it with any type of food).Boris Zakharinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560756640621720539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-26907019179274931122009-06-04T19:26:34.454+01:002009-06-04T19:26:34.454+01:00As a New Zealander... I think I [i]once[/i] met a ...As a New Zealander... I think I [i]once[/i] met a family who referred to the noon meal as "dinner", somewhere in the depths of the South Island. "Lunch" appears to be much more common.David Williamsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16194788205240342750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-82297028801858325582008-11-03T19:27:00.000+00:002008-11-03T19:27:00.000+00:00Having moved from London to Manchester, I can agre...Having moved from London to Manchester, I can agree that there's a strong north-south divide in the UK. In the south you have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In the north you're far more likely to have breakfast, dinner, and tea.<BR/><BR/>I'm freelance and my husband's retired, so our mealtimes are irregular to say the least. We tend to use the following terms. (But we don't eat all of them in one day!)<BR/><I>Breakfast.</I> First meal of the day, eaten within an hour or so of waking. Around here usually called brekkie(s).<BR/><I>Elevenses.</I> A very light snack, such as coffee and biscuits, between breakfast and lunch. Often "elevensies".<BR/><I>Brunch.</I> Around here this usually means you left breakfast so late that you might as well make it big and combine it with lunch.<BR/><I>Lunch.</I> Anything eaten at midday, from a substantial hot meal right down to coffee and biscuits, in which case it's virtually the same as...<BR/><I>Tea.</I> A light snack in the afternoon.<BR/><I>Linner or Dunch.</I> We sometimes have a single substantial meal that combines lunch and dinner, but there's no English word for it. We never call it tea.<BR/><I>Dinner.</I> The evening meal. Usually the main meal of the day. Sometimes referred to as "din-dins".<BR/><I>Supper.</I> A snack in the late evening.<BR/><BR/>Strange that you can have din-dins but never sup-sups. Or elevensies, and even lunchies, but not teasies.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-25358444082765090662008-08-12T18:52:00.000+01:002008-08-12T18:52:00.000+01:00Coming late to the party here, but my guess is tha...Coming late to the party here, but my guess is that 'high tea' is confined to those brits who use 'tea' to mean the drink and/or the mid-afternoon snack, when they want to talk about a light evening meal. We were southern English children with a Scottish Nanny who sometimes served us a 'high tea' at around six: usually something savoury plus scotch pancakes (or drop scones) - a huge treat, and very much something for children, although adults could join in if they wanted (and usually did). She probably used high tea to avoid confusion...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-53122057010740961972008-07-14T20:20:00.000+01:002008-07-14T20:20:00.000+01:00It took me too long to grasp the fact that I could...It took me too long to grasp the fact that I couldn't ask for tea in my in-laws' house without saying "a cup of" in front of it. They'd assume I wanted them to get out ham, salad...(and there was NOTHING to drink with that "tea".)<BR/>In the end, the word I avoid is the mealy-mouthed word "meal" which the English are always saying "shall we go out for a..." "shall we send out for an Indian...". It seems the English are afraid of how they might be classified by any choice. I call it lunch or dinner or supper [WHEN there is soup] and clarify the time if necessary.<BR/>My American daughter called me Mom. My Catalan-born Anglo-American daughter called me Mummy until she was mocked by her school friends who were reminded of ads for Disney-produced English-teaching videos where charming children bounced on a sofa chanting "Mummy Mummy Mummy I love you". Then she called me by my name. <BR/>Now the two girls (21 & 37) are often with us in France. They happily call me Maman.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-72135430585153914782008-07-03T12:20:00.000+01:002008-07-03T12:20:00.000+01:00Yet another Aussie here, but one who was born to E...Yet another Aussie here, but one who was born to English parents.<BR/><BR/>My family referred to the evening meal as "dinner" or "supper". "Afternoon tea" was just "tea" and held at about 3.30/4pm and involved a pot of tea and cake. I was told off for saying dinner for the midday meal, and tea for the evening meal.<BR/><BR/>All this made me very confused at school as my Australian peers referred to it all very differently. Going on school camp offered "supper" which was a light snack before going to bed, which I believe is the original meaning of the word?<BR/><BR/>Morning tea was also called "recess" at school, for the mid morning break before lunch. Sometimes, recess or morning tea was referred to "little lunch" which is quite sweet.<BR/><BR/>However upon my arrival in the UK(3 years now) I feel quite at home!<BR/><BR/>On a side note, first time commenter - a former student of yours has referred me to your blog which I'm really enjoying, and has prompted me to write a post on my own about Aussie/UK words and their differences.Segat1https://www.blogger.com/profile/15918487556625358900noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-3084072703498226862008-07-03T12:19:00.000+01:002008-07-03T12:19:00.000+01:00This comment has been removed by the author.Segat1https://www.blogger.com/profile/15918487556625358900noreply@blogger.com