Dinner
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| Part of the Meals series |
| Common meals... |
| Breakfast |
| Second breakfast |
| Elevenses |
| Brunch |
| Tiffin |
| Lunch |
| Tea |
| Dinner |
| Supper |
| Dessert |
| Snack |
| See also... |
Dinner is the main meal of the day, consisting normally of a combination of cooked animal proteins (meat or fish), vegetables, and starch products like rice, noodles, or potatoes.
The word "dinner" comes from the French word dîner, the "chief repast of the day", ultimately from the Latin disiunare, which means to break fast (as in the English word "breakfast"). A dinner can also be a more sophisticated meal, such as a banquet.
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[edit] History
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the word "dinner" referred to breakfast in Middle English. It derives from late Latin disiunare (to break fast) which has also provided both the French déjeuner (breakfast or lunch, depending on region) and dîner (supper or lunch, depending on region). The Spanish word desayuno, or "breakfast," also comes from this Latin root.
In well-off families in England during the mid-17th century, dinner was served at any time between 11 a.m. and noon and was a rich, heavy, alcoholic repast that lasted for anything up to 3 or 4 hours. After the repast proper, the men would stay at the table to smoke, chat, and drink, while the women would retire to a boudoir to talk, sew, and brew tea.
Then, during the 18th century, dinner was served at a gradually later and later hour until by the early 1800s, the normal time of this meal in upper-class households was between 7 and 8.30 p.m., an extra repast called luncheon having been created to fill the midday gap.
[edit] Dinner customs around the world
[edit] United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, dinner traditionally meant the main meal of the day. Because of differences in custom as to when this meal was taken, dinner might mean the evening meal (typically in the higher social classes) or the midday meal (typically in lower social classes, who may describe their evening meal as tea). There is sometimes snobbery and reverse snobbery about which meaning is used. Large formal evening meals are invariably described as dinners (hence, also, the term dinner jacket which is a form of evening dress).
School dinners is a British phrase for school lunches – reflecting the fact that such school meals were originally provided chiefly for the children of the working class, who typically had their main meal in the middle of the day – and women working in school canteens are generally known in the UK as dinner ladies.
Ambiguity is often avoided altogether by using lunch for the midday meal and tea or supper for the evening meal, though these terms can also carry their own ambiguities.
A more formal definition of "dinner", especially outside North America, is any meal consisting of multiple courses. The minimum is usually two but there can be as many as seven. Possible courses are:
- Hors d'oeuvres (also known as appetisers, starters)
- Soup course (occasionally sorbet)
- Fish course
- Entrée course (which may be a palate-cleansing course such as sorbet)
- Meat course
- Dessert (also known as the Sweet or pudding course)
- Cheese course
(after this it is customary to serve coffee, or brandy and cigars after the Loyal Toast)
Some confusion is caused by the word entrée, which is used in North America for the main course, but which was originally one of the earlier courses (OED lists it as the main course, but gives an additional British English meaning: a ready-made dish served between the fish course and the main course). In French, les entrées are the appetisers, and entrée may be used in Great Britain for the same thing (the term "starters" is more commonly used), or may mean main course. In Australia entrée is commonly used instead of appetisers or starters.
Dinner is generally followed by tea or coffee, sometimes served with mint chocolates or other sweets, or with brandy or a digestif. When dinner consists of many courses, these tend to be smaller and to be served over a longer time period than a dinner with only two or three courses. Dinners with many courses tend to occur at formal events such as dinner parties or banquets.
This formal version of the meal is generally served in the evening, starting at some time between 7.30 and 8.30 (in the Netherlands, however, typically at 6). It may be served at midday or shortly afterwards; this tends, however, to be more typical of Scotland than of other countries. In Spain, where lunch is eaten relatively late, dinner is typically served late in the evening, no earlier than 9 or 10 p.m.
[edit] Australia, Canada, and United States
In Australia and most parts of the United States and Canada, dinner is the evening repast served around 6 to 10 p.m. In some regions, such as the southern or rural mid-western United States, Maritimes, parts of Saskatchewan, and Québec, the evening repast is called supper (souper in Québec), and dinner (dîner) refers to the noon repast, which itself would be called lunch in most parts of the United States and Canada. In the Southern United States, the main repast of the day is called Dinner, whether taken at noon or in the evening. On farms it was traditionally taken at noon. If Dinner, the main repast of the day, is at noon, the evening repast is called Supper. If Dinner, the main repast of the day, is in the evening the noon repast is called Lunch.
Mainly in Australia, tea and dinner are synonyms.
