Dinner or Lunch ?

[peppy]

Regional expressions fascinate me, including what makes some of us (in the North ???) call the mid-day meal dinner, and others ,lunch.
Where are you from and what do you call it ?

[rockyracoon]

I'm from London

Noon is lunch

Dinner is early evening

[rockyracoon]

Oh, and breakfast is a bacon butty with loadsa butter. LOL

[rja211077]

folks in yorkshire tend to have main meal at midday, this is dinner. tea is at 5-6 pm.

i live a slightly more cosmopolitan lifestyle since leaving the parental home and I definitely tend to use the terms lunch and dinner (which is at 7.30-8pm)

my sister, who has lost virtually all characteristics associated with her roots, often calls dinner 'supper', which REALLY annoys me.

[rja211077]

i should have started my response with 'my' to clarify that i was referring only to my parents and not making a generalisation about all Yorkshire people.

[drchasuble]

I'm from London but grew up in Rutland and abroad so we're a bit confused and use all of the various options.
I usually say lunch and tea (7:30-8pm) so sort of mix it up!

I hate "supper" too rja. So poncy.

[teag1rl]

I'm from mid wales and I have dinner at midday and tea and teatime (5-6ish)

[KenR]

Dabated this few years back with a friend from the north east of england (I'm in scotland). We ended up reasearching it through the library (pre-internet days) and what transpired is that it seemed to relate to be the meal rather than the time. Simply put, dinner was the main meal of the day. This fitted as when she was growing up mid-day was her main meal whereas now, here in scortland, it is the 5-7ish meal. Work also took me down to the 'north' for a few months about 20 years back and the big meal was at lunch time with a light 'tea' and a round of sandwiches for supper.

[Eve]

I've lived all over (Shropshire, Wales, Yorkshire, Manchester and London) and find it differs greatly.

For me it's breakfst, lunch and tea though dinner if it's going out or something posher like having friends round for dinner. Supper is used back home as a late evening snack after tea.

In Manchester my lunch seems to be more commonly dinner which is strange to me though thinking about it growing up in Shropshire we always had school dinners (or lunchbox), dinnerladies etc...at lunchtime.

[Athley]

I am from South Wales and have breakfast, lunch and dinner. On a Sunday we have brunch (11.30ish) then dinner in the evening.

:o)

[Xollob]

I grew up in Lancashire in the 60s and 70s and had school dinners but - if I remember correctly - also Sunday lunch. At school we paid dinner money for dinner tokens, which we gave to dinner ladies during our dinner break.
Is there anybody out there who had "lunch ladies"?

[chinois]

Always been lunch at midday and supper in the evening. Dinner if i'm going out or if it's formal.
I think 'tea' just gets confusing, it has other meanings in english...

[chinois]

forgot to add i'm from the south and from a 'posh' family.

[marvinparvin]

Lunch at mid-day (but always "school dinners" - don't ask me why!) and dinner or supper (since when has supper been "poncy" as somebody put it earlier?) in the evening. I'm from middle England.

[idalovett]

I'm a Londoner and lunch is mid day and dinner is of an evening.

[bendigedig]

just finished arguing about this with my family! i call mid day meal lunch and evening meal dinner, i was told i'd forgotten my welsh country roots! it annoys me as i work in a hotel and someone books a table for dinner and then turn up at lunchtime!
question for those who call lunch dinner - would you book a table lunch or dinner if you wanted to eat at 12.30pm?

[kaztuz]

I live in the Midlands, and our family and friends tend to say lunch if we are having something cold or dinner for something hot and in the evening we have tea.

[flipflop104]

I think dinner (middle of the day meal) is a northern thing. I'm from Leeds and it's dinner at 12noon (or thereabouts) and tea at teatime (7pm or thereabouts).

I find that southerners tend to say lunch (for middle of the day) and dinner (in the evening)

[everylittle]

Breakfast, dinner then tea. Go out for a 'meal'. Order a takeaway. How privileged we are!

[everylittle]

Sorry forgot to say I'm from East Anglia.

[peppy]

Loads of interesting answers to my original question, but, everylittle, yours matches my opinion word for word.

It's as I thought, a truly regional thing and that's why I get miffed when people from the North call it lunch, it's as if they've ' fallen in' with what they think is 'proper' !!!!

Be proud of your origins everybody !! xx