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Post by bc2ca on May 15, 2017 14:42:00 GMT
I love threads like this. Growing up with British parents in Canada we started with breakfast, lunch, supper & tea. Somewhere early on "supper" became "dinner" and I'm sure that was from outside influences on us kids (friends, school, tv). We did know tea (or high tea?) was the evening meal for my parents growing up, but "tea" for us was a nightly pot of tea and snack (usually cookies) before bed. DH still occassionally uses supper in place of dinner and our kids correct him. I'm not surprised a 25 year old wouldn't have heard the word or that he googled it. I use google several times a week (a day?) to look up things.
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Post by Zee on May 15, 2017 14:42:17 GMT
Interchangeable with dinner in my area of the Midwest, though supper is more old-fashioned or rural.
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Post by pondrunner on May 15, 2017 14:54:34 GMT
I recall that I first heard supper in Wisconsin to refer to the evening meal. I think if it as interchangeable with dinner mostly, although dinner can also refer to any large or fancy meal such as Easter dinner which can occur at varying times of day.
I know it isn't an exclusively southern term but perhaps it is old fashioned, that I don't know.
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Post by katlaw on May 15, 2017 15:15:09 GMT
I grew up saying lunch and supper. I did not even realize that other parts of the world called the evening meal dinner until I met my friend's grandmother from the UK.
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Post by katlady on May 15, 2017 15:18:27 GMT
I grew up thinking both were the same, but we usually used the word "dinner" for the evening meal. Once in awhile my dad would use "supper" and he grew up on a farm. West coast family.
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Post by crimsoncat05 on May 15, 2017 15:36:35 GMT
In my opinion, supper is definitely a regional thing, and possibly small town vs. urban area...
I grew up having dinner (midday meal) and supper (evening meal). I grew up in northwestern Illinois (small town) in the 1970s-80s.
After college I lived in the Chicago suburbs, and I think it gradually turned into lunch / dinner.
Now that I live in Arizona (Phoenix area), I have not heard dinner / supper in YEARS, except when talking to my parents. Here in Arizona, it's always lunch and dinner.
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Post by summer on May 15, 2017 16:00:34 GMT
Of course I know what supper is. I would never use the word myself though, where I'm from everyone says dinner.
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Julie W
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Post by Julie W on May 15, 2017 16:02:03 GMT
I have a good friend in her early 50s whose family from Sioux Falls, still calls their evening meal "supper."
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Post by mollycoddle on May 15, 2017 16:03:34 GMT
Yup. Used interchangeably with "dinner" in my neck of the woods. It's the third meal of the day, around 6pm. Mine too.
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Deleted
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Jun 1, 2024 19:01:41 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2017 16:04:08 GMT
After reading the entire thread the word supper has lost all meaning!
ETA Growing up supper would be when we ate cereal...
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PaperAngel
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Post by PaperAngel on May 15, 2017 16:23:16 GMT
Southern who grew up with breakfast/dinner/supper, but now refers to meals as breakfast/lunch/dinner. While our teen is familar with the term supper (since it's still used by extended family), he would clarify whether a person using the word dinner was referring to a midday or evening meal.
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Post by workingclassdog on May 15, 2017 17:53:45 GMT
Yes I know what 'supper' is but I don't use it very much... I guess I think of supper as a Sunday early dinner meal and I have no idea why. I guess I have said it here or there cause my youngest DD who is 9 asked me the other day what that meant.
Edited to add:
So I can't say what region I am from, but mostly mid-west.. but since I have lived in the South, Mid-West and West the most.. I would say Mid-West is where I probably heard the term. I would say my mom might say it the most. I can't remember what my grandma called it. Mid-West as in mainly KS and MO.
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River
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Post by River on May 15, 2017 18:00:39 GMT
Southerner here. We use the word supper regularly at home, referring to the last meal of the day. Dinner to us is a more formal occasion, usually out somewhere.
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Post by deekaye on May 15, 2017 18:16:15 GMT
Grandparents from South Dakota always said Breakfast, Lunch, Supper. Grew up saying Supper until my high school years when I decided that "dinner" was more elegant. LOL!
Mom still says supper. Everyone else says dinner. Mom will use the word dinner if it is something special: Birthday dinner, Easter dinner, etc. Interchangeable, really.
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Post by peasapie on May 15, 2017 18:47:08 GMT
Dinner was always the confusing word, because on Sunday it was at 3 and took the place of lunch and supper.
Supper was the other 6 days of the week, after we'd had breakfast and lunch. No confusion about that word.
I grew up in an Italian-American household, if that makes any difference.
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Post by peasapie on May 15, 2017 18:48:28 GMT
"Dinner" refers to the largest meal of the day. While the terms lunch and supper denote small meals at noon and in the evening. My parents have breakfast, dinner and supper. I have breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is fascinating. I would never have guessed people had both dinner and supper in the same day!
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smcast
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Post by smcast on May 15, 2017 18:51:29 GMT
Yes. Noon meal was dinner, not lunch. 6pm meal was supper. Lunch was in between dinner and supper.
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Post by Jockscrap on May 15, 2017 19:12:25 GMT
Another Brit, and we have breakfast, lunch and tea and I never use the word supper, but know it to be a snack before bed. But just to show how bonkers language usage is, the midday meal at school was always a school dinner which you bought dinner tickets for, and if I'm going out for a posh meal or having a posh meal at home with company e.g., at Christmas, it's dinner. And if I'm going out for an informal meal in a pub, it's either a bar lunch or a bar supper.
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Post by bdawnb on May 15, 2017 20:44:40 GMT
When I was growing up dinner was the midday meal at home and supper was the meal at the end of the day. Lunch was what you put in a bag and took to school. Now I use dinner and supper interchangeably.
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Post by maryland on May 15, 2017 21:49:12 GMT
I have heard of it, but I never say it. It's one of the words I dislike. I have lived in Maryland and PA, and almost everyone I know says dinner.
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AmeliaBloomer
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Post by AmeliaBloomer on May 15, 2017 21:51:35 GMT
Clearly, few of you sup.
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Post by anxiousmom on May 15, 2017 23:23:31 GMT
I sup. Although, I have a visceral reaction to a boy who may walk in my house and say 'whatsup'...annoys the snot out of me. I don't know if it is regional or not, but I grew up (in the south) with supper reigning as the evening meal. I will now occasionally say dinner, mostly on the dinner thread and if we are going out, but supper is more common in the anxious house.
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ellen
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Post by ellen on May 15, 2017 23:35:22 GMT
My parents ate three meals: Breakfast, Dinner, and Supper. They were from Minnesota. This, exactly.
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tiffanytwisted
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Post by tiffanytwisted on May 16, 2017 22:31:22 GMT
Yup. Used interchangeably with "dinner" in my neck of the woods. It's the third meal of the day, around 6pm. This is me. Haven't read all the replies yet, but I wonder why growing up my family said 'supper' and now I say 'dinner'. When did I change? Could it be around the same time I started saying 'pasta' instead of 'macaroni'? Hmmmm . . .
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scrapngranny
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Post by scrapngranny on May 16, 2017 22:53:12 GMT
My dad said supper, but my mother said dinner. My dad was from Wyoming and my mom was raised in Colorado, but her mom was born in England. DH and I have always said dinner.
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