School Meals

[Quicksilver]

Why is the mid-day meal served in schools always referred to as "School Dinners". Surely they should be called "School Lunches". I thought the correct order of meals was Breakfast, Elevenses, Lunch, Tea, Dinner and, finally, Supper.

[nicola_red]

Not in the North of England.  I was always brought up to call the midday meal dinner and the evening meal tea.

[Quizmonster]

One cannot hope to explain the differences better than simply by quoting what The Oxford English Dictionary says about 'dinner'...

"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."

It is clear, therefore, that it is a matter entirely of class and - as Nicola said above - geography.

[jno]

I always called the midday meal dinner... but it actually was dinner, the main meal of the day; 'tea' was just sandwiches in the evening. Comes of being non-British, I suppose - geography again.

[netibiza]

Dinner should always be the main meal of the day regardless of when it is eaten - so I presume that lots of kids do not get a proper evening meal and thus lunch would be dinner.

[BornBlue]

Being a northener in London I am always criticised for calling my midday meal dinner and my evening meal tea. My answer is always the same:- in school did you have dinner ladies or lunch ladies?

[bernardo]

I have always had breakfast - dinner - tea.  This is not because of a difference of the meaning of the words used, but because I was contrary and insisted on eating things in the reverse order.

[heatherglen]

The word dinner was used when meals started in schools because for many children it was the only big meal of the day, and dinner was known as the main meal.

[Dark Angel]

Somewhere on this site, it was mentioned that '"tea" is a working class term for what upper classes call "dinner". 

Someone else mentioned that it ties in with factory workers who used to come home early in the evening when factories shut down and then had an early "dinner" that they called "tea". How far this is true, I don't know.

[gazzawazza]

I'm from the north-east and hate the increasing use of the word "lunch."  To me it's an upper-class word as has already been mentioned.  This has popped up on the site before and as I said then, l have breakfast, dinner, tea and supper.

[funkychicken]

I live in the north east, but was brought up in north wales, my mum comes from the south west  and my dads from lancashire, we have breakfast, lunch and tea.