The language of mealtimes

In English, we refer to three square meals a day. Some say this quadrate term originates from the days of sailing ships, when workers would be served their meals on square-shaped wooden plates known as trenchers. These days, a square meal refers to a substantial serving of food that satiaties your hunger – whatever shape of plate it’s served on. With food playing such a pivotal role in our day-to-day lives, it’s no wonder we’ve invented so much vocabulary around it. And we’re certainly not done inventing new foodie phrases. The proof is in the pudding: Just look at TikTok & Co, where you’ll find talk of girl dinner, users commending how someone ate and left no crumbs, or comments saying how a certain food hits different. 

But back to mealtime. The history of the words we use for meals is fascinating stuff.

Breakfast, for example, is thought to have come from monastic life in the Middle Ages, when the monks would not eat until after morning mass and would then literally break the night’s fast.

Brunch is a portmanteau (another great word) of breakfast and lunch. It is thought to have started life in the 19th century and described hunt breakfasts; sumptuous feasts with multiple courses.

Elevenses, arguably very similar to brunch, is a term first recorded in the 1820s. It is thought to stem from the British aristocracy, who would tide themselves over with a light snack before their luncheon. The phrase was later highly popularised by the Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, where it represents the third of the seven traditional Hobbit meals (where do they find the time?).

Then, of course, comes the whole lunch/dinner/tea/supper debate. This is where it starts getting tricky. We’ll start with the lunchtime meal: lunch. You would think. Of somewhat mysterious origins, it may have come from a merging of the Anglo-Saxon word nuncheon; none (noon) and schench (drink), and perhaps the Northern English dialect word for a hunk of bread or cheese. I bet you’re thinking sandwiches now, aren’t you? But actually, the eating of sandwiches owes more to the 17th century French word souper, which was a light meal eaten in the evening (our supper of course, but more of that later) and is the eating occasion in the 1750s when the Earl of Sandwich invented his famous, at the time, late-night snack. So far so complicated. Depending on where you are in the UK, your afternoon meal is often called dinner. Often, it’s fair to say it’s ‘dinner’ up north and ‘lunch’ down south, and it’s one of those things that tends to discombobulate non-native speakers.

Moving quickly on to tea. Its origins are afternoon meal at which tea is served. So, either high tea (now confusingly known as afternoon tea), with cake and tiny little cucumber sandwiches. Compared to other countries, this meal is served quite early in the evening, usually around 6 o’clock, much to the horror of Spaniards, who’ll be dining far later into the night. Now depending on where you find yourself in the UK, this could also be dinner. There are no hard and fast rules here, but usually the north of the UK will be tucking into tea, whilst the south will be enjoying a spot of dinner. Dinner originates from around the 1300s, having transfer from the Old French disner, to refer to the main meal of the day.

Lastly, to supper. To some, it has always meant a cheeky little snack before bed… But other Brits seem to take supper as their evening meal, which always sounds rather wonderful in an Enid Blyton, midnight feast sort of a way. Then of course there’s a fish supper – a staple on the British menu referring to the classic fish’n’chips.

So there you have it. Time for a quick snack we think…

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