supper or dinner, what do you call that meal?

[Sallie Lemons]

My midwestern relatives changed the meal routine on Sundays. The big meal during
the week was dinner, which was served at night; lunch was served noontime. On
Sunday, the big meal was noon-ish (after church) and "supper" was a light meal
served that night. Of course, this could easily be just my family.

"Sonja L. Lanehart" wrote:

> My husband and I have had this discussion before. He is from
> Minnesota where apparently dinner is what you do at noon and supper
> is what you do at night. I come from Texas and lunch is what you do
> at noon and dinner is what you do at night. Now that we have a child,
> somehow I thought it better that we be on the same page so I use
> supper now as well for what you do at night though I still use lunch
> for what you do at noon since that's what they call it the schools
> he's attended here in Georgia and California.  --SL
>
> >Hello, I have a small problem.  A couple weeks I went to visit my
> >grandmother.  She asked that I come by for dinner.  So, on that day, just
> >before 6 PM I stopped by.  However, she had already eaten. In fact, she ate
> >dinner for lunch.  How can this be?  She gave me quite a verbal lashing,
> >stating that dinner is eaten at night while lunch is eaten at noon.  She
> >told me to stop "smart mouthing" and come in and eat leftovers.
> >
> >As the expert you would know this distinction,  what's the difference
> >between supper, dinner and lunch?
> >
> >thanks for any help you can provide
> >Jerry
>
> ***************************************************
> Sonja L. Lanehart
> Department of English      706-542-2260 (office)
> University of Georgia      706-542-1261 (messages)
> 300 Park Hall              706-542-2181 (fax)
> Athens, GA 30605-6205      lanehart at arches.uga.edu
> ***************************************************