Do you say "Dinner" or "Supper" ?

[left-of-center2012]

The terms “supper” and “dinner” can be used pretty interchangeably, but “dinner” is typically used more often. Regardless, if someone says one or the other, most people will know they’re referring to the last meal of the day. But they’re not the same thing after all—and if your grandparents or parents used the term “supper,” there’s a good chance your ancestors were farmers.

“[In the 18th and early 19th centuries,] Americans regularly ate a light supper as their evening meal because they were eating dinner—the biggest meal of the day—around noon,” food historian Helen Zoe Veit told NPR. The purpose of eating their biggest meal at noontime was so farmers would have more strength and energy to get through the rest of their workday, according to the English Language & Usage Stack Exchange. Dictionary.com confirms, “dinner” doesn’t necessarily refer to a specific time of day. It simply means the main meal of the day. “Supper,” however, stems from the Old French word “souper,” meaning “evening meal.”

So what changed? Eating the biggest meal of the day around noon started to become a thing of the past when more Americans began working away from their homes and farms. “They couldn’t readily return home to cook and eat in the middle of the day,” says Veti. And so, more and more people shifted their main meal of the day to the evening, when they could spend more time enjoying their food and spending time with their family. Check out these foods that have a different name in the UK.

Today, you might notice that the term “supper” is more commonly used in Southern and Midwestern states, probably due to those regions having a greater reliance on agriculture than Northern states and thus having more ancestors who were farmers.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/difference-between-dinner-and-supper/

[CatMor]

1. Dinner ... I live in the north

[Skittles]

2. here it is dinner, in England it was supper

yup

[catbyte]

3. Dinner. Life-long Michigander here.

[lisa58]

4. When I was growing up Dinner for Sunday afternoon...

Supper for after school/work during the week (from the northeast)

[Tanuki]

5. I was raised in West Virginia and generally say supper but sometimes say dinner

when I mean the same meal. Reflecting on it, I am probably more likely to say dinner if I am talking about eating in a restaurant, as in "going out to dinner." Where I grew up, if you invited someone over for Sunday dinner, it was understood to mean lunch that would be served a little later than lunch on oher days to accommodate everyone getting home from church, and it would be the biggest meal on Sunday, with at least one really nice pie or cake for dessert. I think that all over the country, from what I have observed, people will say "Thanksgiving Dinner" regardless of what time they are planning to serve the turkey, even if they're having it more at the usual hour for lunch.

[AmyStrange]

10. Going out for Supper would be weird

[AmyStrange]

6. Supper when I lived in New England, but...

-

since I moved to Seattle, it's turned into dinner.

They also have no damn "light" cream out here either.

It's probably psychological, but half 'n' half is just not the same thing.
==========

[Patterson]

7. Supper.

[SoCalNative]

8. Dinner if it's early in the evening

Supper if it's late - like after attending the theatre or opera.

[dem4decades]

9. Growing up in New England we had supper, my wife from the other side of the tracks, had dinner.

Sunday afternoon was our big meal, dinner of course. Sometimes a baked chicken, or a ham, Krakus, use the key and be careful.

[MyOwnPeace]

11. In western PA......

it was breakfast - dinner - supper when I was a kid.
Now I just do not hear anybody use "supper" for any meal whenever.......

[left-of-center2012]

13. I grew up in western PA (Indiana & Westmoreland counties)

During the week, we had supper in the evening.
Sundays and holidays we had 'dinner' around 1 P.M.

[mike_c]

12. usually dinner...

...unless it's supper.

[wendyb-NC]

14. Supper.

I grew up in Upstate New York, where my family lived for generations.

[greatauntoftriplets]

15. Dinner in Chicago.

[alfie]

16. My grandparents were farmers in Georgia

Dinner was the big meal in the middle of the day. After Grandmother cleaned off and washed the plates, glasses, and silverware she would cover the bowls and plates of left over food with a clean tablecloth. Then at the evening meal she cooked fresh biscuits and cornbread and they ate those and the left overs. Of course she cooked enough for both meals in the morning. The evening meal was supper. Now I go back and forth.

[LuvNewcastle]

17. It varies in Mississippi, mostly dinner for lunch and supper for dinner.

Here in coastal Mississippi, which had less of a farming tradition, many people say lunch and then dinner. I call it supper if it's served late at night, like after 9:00 pm.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

18. Dinner mostly, though it could be called supper if a late, light meal (Minnesota).

The meal on Sundays around noon was always dinner, though, and the evening meal would be supper.

[Ms. Toad]

19. Supper is the evening meal - regardless of the size.

The meal at noon is either lunch or dinner, depending on the size/formality. Generally lunch M-S, Sunday noon is generally dinner.

[2naSalit]

20. When I was a kid...

It was supper. Somewhere in my teens it became dinner and has been so ever since. I don't seem to eat supper anymore.

[Chainfire]

21. Dinner (or lunch) is at noon, supper is at 6:00 PM

I was under the impression that it was connected to German ancestry, but of course that could also relate to German farmers.

[smirkymonkey]

22. Grew up in New York, and the evening meal has always been dinner.

Breakfast in the morning, lunch around noon-ish and dinner in the evening. Supper always seemed like an older generation thing to me, and I think I have heard it was sort of a regional colloquialism as well. I don't know anyone my age or younger who calls it supper.

[whistler162]

23. Call it anything you want just don't

call me late for it.

[onecaliberal]

24. We call it dinner, either is fine.

[frazzled]

25. I call it both

or at least I think I do. So I asked my spouse, and he said both, too. He’s originally from the South, me from the Midwest, but we’ve lived all over the place over the years: New York, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Illinois. Maybe that’s why we probably use them interchangeably.

[Dagstead Bumwood]

26. Like many I was raised to call the evening meal "Supper"

and the mid-day meal "Dinner." That continued until I acquired my first real adult office job. Everyone used the term "lunch" and it sounded so cosmopolitan and sophisticated to me that I adopted it My mom still refers to lunch as dinner and that has lead to some confusing conversations over the years.

[Glorfindel]

27. Supper. The mid-day meal was dinner when I was growing up.

Now I almost always say lunch. But if going out, it's "out to dinner," never "out to supper."

[3catwoman3]

28. Pretty much interchangeable for us.

Breakfast, lunch, and supper/dinner

My parents were mid-westerners. My dad was from Chicago, and my mom from a small town in Minnesota. “No, you can’t have a snack now - it’s almost supper time.”

[jmowreader]

29. I call it "chow"

Which is the usual Army term for any meal...when I worked mids (11:30 pm to 7:30 am) chow was at 3:30 in the morning, and it was either breakfast food or whatever they didn't eat at Day shift chow and Swing shift chow.

And I still say none of you have truly lived until you've had an omelet filled with Spam and cheese. They are as bad as they sound, but every mess hall in US Command Berlin got 250 pounds of Spam left over from the Berlin Constabulary era and orders to feed it to us.

[Dem2theMax]

30. Dinner!

But I eat at weird hours. Typically don't eat breakfast until lunch time. So I'm not sure what I call that. Today I didn't really have breakfast or lunch. And dinner was more of a snack. So nothing fit today.

[Iggo]

31. Dinner.

We only say "supper" when we're making fun of weirdos.

[sakabatou]

32. Dinner

[NNadir]

33. We used "supper" when I was growing up on Long Island, NY.

When I moved to California, it became "dinner," and now, in NJ, it still is.

I haven't heard "supper" since I was a kid.

[yankeepants]

34. Sofa, couch, davenport

[raccoon]

35. I don't know what to say anymore. I grew up saying supper, but in probably the last few decades I've

I don’t know what to say anymore. I grew up saying supper, but in probably the last few decades I’ve been living in cities Where are most people say dinner.

So now I’m so confused I don’t know what to do. But I guess looking from the standpoint of which is the main meal, I’d say supper, because lunch is my biggest meal.

[OriginalGeek]

36. Like I just pointed out in a different thread for a different reason

I have lived in the south all my life. I usually say supper for the evening meal and lunch for the midday meal EXCEPT on special occasions when the midday meal is a little later (2 to 3 o'clock) and generally covers both - like christmas and thanksgiving.

BUT I am not opposed to saying dinner for the evening meal too and I occasionally do if it feels more lyrical at the time.

[GumboYaYa]

37. Growing up in rural Louisiana we ate dinner around noon

and supper in the evening. I had to change to lunch and dinner because no one knew what I was talking about when I wanted to have dinner at lunchtime.

[mnhtnbb]

38. Breakfast, lunch, dinner.