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Olly, firstly where do you live and please describe your socio economic status so we have a full picture of your ‘posho’ status. Also yes you can be in the show, you’ll need skype and a decent mic though…
West London no idea of socio economic status … tea is something VERY small children have prior to a 6pm bath and subsequent bedtime. Tea can also be emergency food to stop a primary school child dying of starvation in the period between the end of school and … DINNER. Dinner is the cooked meal of the evening, also referred to domestically as a ‘hotto’ (as opposed to a ‘coldo’ which is either a soft drink or a salad or a sandwich). I think hottos and coldos are specifically terms used by the Substances family.
When I was a small child, growing up not a million miles from where Roifield did, albeit a few years earlier, it was definitely dinner in the middle of the day and tea later on. However, as we moved round the country and the family’s social standing improved, we moved to lunch in the middle of the day and dinner in the evening. To what extent the change was down to geography rather than social standing is difficult to gauge. Nowadays, my wife (born further North than me)and I, and our children, all confine dinner to the evening, wherever we are. “Supper” however, remains a vague construct, consumed only rarely when dinner has for some reason has proved inadequate; in my view it’s only true resting place is in “Keeping Up Appearances”, accompanied by candlelight! I’ve certainly never knowingly had a hotto or a coldo.
Grew up in Hastings on the south coast on a council estate and it was definitely tea there. Moved to the midlands to a nice area. Still tea. Moved to Birmingham. Still tea (unless it was a ‘cooked dinner’ which was anything with gravy and potatoes that wasn’t served on a sunday). Swindon next and I can’t remember, I was either working, sleeping or drunk. Worthing next. Nice area again and we had dinner. Now in Bristol I live with a Salfordian (Greater Manchester) so it is definitely Breakfast, dinner, TEA.
Supper is what posh people have after 9pm
I think this is a class thing, not a geography thing.
I was born and raised in Essex by parents who were also both born and raised in the county in working class homes. When I was a child, we used “dinner” to name for the midday meal and “tea” for the evening meal. However, my mother was keen to climb the social ladder and by the time I went to senior school, we were using “lunch” for midday and “dinner” for evening meals. This was part of the general trend of changing from non-U to U words in our household – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English for other examples.
Supper was something I only has as a child and it consisted of a milky drink and a biscuit before bed, some time after the evening meal.
In Sydney its pretty much breakfast lunch and dinner everywhere. I think some older working class people might say tea. Also people from the country, possibly. As far as I am aware, no-one in Australia has a meal called supper.
There ‘s another meal between breakfast and lunch. In Wiltshire it’s “Snap” and in Geordie land it’s ” Bait or Bate (?) ” . If you start work really early you need food mid morning. Anyone else heard of this? It’s definitely not a posho name.
Auckland by way of Suffolk, and I’d describe myself as firmly middle class (which probably means I’m really “upper working” 🙂
Anyway, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.Light snack with coffee around 9pm is supper, but that term only really started to be used when it was a requirement for our type 1 diabetic daughter – we had to support her, you know!
Hertfordshire, Working/middle classish. What determines this? I was definitely brought up middle (we even went skiing once), but I don’t own my own home, work in construction and have no money so, in my mind I’m middle but in terms of economics I’m working class.
We were always firmly in the Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner bracket. However on a similar theme, as time has gone on my mother has stopped referring to her lounge and has started calling it a sitting room. That’s not a euphemism.
Other similar things:
Its a loo not a toilet, lavatory is too posh for me.
Its a napkin not a serviette, or more often a bit of kitchen towel 🙂
Sofa not settee
Bread roll not bapGrew up on the east coast of US in a small working/middle class town (parents were teacher & an engineer so not sure where that would fall – a wide variety of people call themselves middle class here). Dinner has a slight connotation of a more elaborate meal (Sunday dinner, Christmas dinner, etc) but one could easily say “I’ll be home for dinner” and it could be a regular weeknight meal too. My sense is that dinner is coming into favor and supper is on its way out – used to hear it more as a kid.
Gasp – it was me who phoned in about this ;-).
I am from Stoke on Trent originally, very working class, and we had Breakfast, then dinner, then tea.
Having moved darn sarf, it’s Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. I think my version of supper is cheese on toast while watching the 10 o’clock news.Weekend is a mix up with Brunch – (ie a full English with chips, at around 11am) and Dinner. And a kebab if I’ve been on the pop (a kebabble).
Raised by very young working-class parents (apprentice carpenter and housewife) and maternal Yorkshire grandmother on outskirts of Slough, in rented property then Council house.
Breakfast, dinner, tea. Tea, always a hot and filling meal, was eaten as soon as Dad came home from work, so about 6 pm. Supper was occasional, to stave off ‘night starvation’ if staying up late, and could be a piece of toast, couple of cream crackers or a bowl of cereal.
At school, everyone called them ‘school dinners’ (this is the 1970s) but if there was a day trip anywhere, then you were told to bring a ‘packed lunch’.
AN AMERICAN’S PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 1960S AND 70S…
I grew up in working/(American) middle class (not English middle class) neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens.
Supper was the normal weekday meal of meat and vegetables at 6pm. The only thing to follow was dessert. Dinner was fancier: as in “going out to dinner” to a restaurant or to a friend’s house. Tea was what you drank at Chinese restaurants or when you were not feeling well (as in yucky Lipton’s).
Now that I have a Glaswegian husband, I have learned that when he is peckish at 10pm he has tea consisting of toast and cheese or leftovers.
And that’s the view from America!
When I was a child, you went in after school (or play) for ‘tea’ – but that really was around teatime: an early dinner.
Now it’s breakfast, lunch and dinner here at Blithe Spirit HQ.
I like the historical take on the topic. During the Restoration period, breakfast basically didn’t exist (perhaps a ‘small beer’ – weak ale – and some bread). Samuel Pepys described meals in the middle of the day as ‘dinner’ – usually substantial – and the lighter repast at the end of the day as ‘supper’.
So it’s a bit of a mix really, and has changed as time has gone on.
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