Breakfast,Lunch and Dinner. Or, is it Breakfast Dinner and Supper?

Question

When I was growing up on the farm in Kansas we called the 3 meals a day Breakfast followed for the noon meal we called Dinner and the evening meal we called Supper. Now days everybody calls them Breakfast,Lunch and Dinner in that order. What changed and is there one that is proper and one that is slang?

Answer 1

It's a regional thing.

But those kinds of differences are disappearing, what with communication, entertainment, and people moving around more.

Neither is wrong.

I THINK it's more common, in farming communities, where often the big meals are earlier in the day (for us, dinner at night was the biggie; for farmers, the noon meal is often a biggie, so they don't drop from their hard labor on a partly empty stomach).

Answer 2

I think the meaning of the words have changed.

Dinner used to mean an early feast, usually early in the evening, after 12noon, but before 3pm.  Lunch was a term for working people who would break and snack on something light, before returning to work. When they would get home, they would have Supper.  Also, families would eat Supper at 5 in the evening.

Check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunch

Answer 3

It is just a different type of talk they mean the same thing and that it depends on who it is so it is just a matter of preference.  

Answer 4

I have only used breakfast, lunch, dinner.  A supper was really supposed to be a very late meal like after 10 or so.  But I say call it whatever you wish.

Answer 5

In my family, growing up, it was Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, EXCEPT on Sundays. Then it was Breakfast, Dinner then Supper. Don't ask me why. My Grandma came from Germany. That's what she called it.  

Answer 6

Breakfast, lunch, supper.

Answer 7

Well, for me it's Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner/Supper.  Dinner and supper are interchangeable for me.  I never refer to lunch as "dinner", as dinner reminds me of the evening.

Answer 8

For me it's breakfast, lunch if at work or school, but dinner if at home around 1pm, then there's afternoon tea (I live in Ireland), then evening tea around 6pm and then supper at around 9pm.

Answer 9

who cares just dig in yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 10

In the old days, or even now for country folk, they call it breakfast, dinner, and supper. But now in modern times, its Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Answer 11

I think its different for every community/ culture. Ive heard people call lunch dinner. And up north no one calls dinner dinner, they call it supper.  

Answer 12

When I was a little kid it was breakfast, dinner, and supper.

When I started to school it changed to breakfast, lunch, and supper.

As a young adult most of my friends started eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I continued with breakfast, lunch, and supper and still to this day that's what we eat in my house.

My daughter-in-law has always eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner, but her grandmother still eats dinner at noon and supper as the evening meal. This causes a lot of confusion on holidays because we have lunch at noon and the grandmother has dinner at noon and DIL is invited to both and never knows when to go where. It's a little comical.....

Answer 13

Technically, the largest meal of the day is called "dinner" according to etiquette.  Mostly what changed is that we went from a very large population of farmers & such who ate their largest meal at noon, to a largely white collar society who don't even have time for a noon meal, and so eat their largest meal at night.

Lunch replaced the noon meal as the name, and dinner was moved to the nighttime meal.

I grew up with the same thing, and still use those terms if the situation arises.  I.E. for Sunday, we usually still have a huge noon meal & then just a sandwich for the nighttime.

Answer 14

What is supper!? Some people subsitute it for dinner..so dinner equals supper. Some people think, like you said, breakfast, supper, and dinner.  It is the 21st centur people its breakfast lunch and dinner...but if it's that really such a big deal people should understand the difference in you speech.

Answer 15

Purely personal opinion--whichever is the main or largest meal is Dinner; the other one is Lunch or Supper. I think it used to be common for the largest meal to be at noon. When I was growing up we still had dinner early in the afternoon on Sundays. My wife thinks that Supper and Dinner are interchangeable for the evening meal, so this may be something that varies by region or ethnicity, or just between families.

Answer 16

for me it's breakfast, lunch, and dinner