The evening meal is usually called 'tea', 'dinner' or 'supper'. What is a traditional British Dinner? A typical British meal for dinner is "meat and two veg".
According to the majority of British adults (54 percent), the last meal of the day should be called 'dinner'. In fact, only four in ten Britons still refer to it as "tea", while just one in twenty (5 percent) call it 'supper'.
The terminology around eating in the UK is still confusing. For some "lunch" is "dinner" and vice versa. From the Roman times to the Middle Ages everyone ate in the middle of the day, but it was called dinner and was the main meal of the day.
Some people in Britain and Australia refer to their main evening meal as "tea" rather than "dinner" or "supper", but generally, with the exception of Scotland and Northern England, "tea" refers to a light meal or a snack.
Contributor's comments: In Tasmania 'dinner' is usually the meal (or snack) eaten in the middle of the day; though, if the midday meal is a snack it may be referred to as 'lunch', especially by school children, ie it's lunch-time. 'Tea' is the evening meal.
They found that 74 per cent of Scots surveyed call their evening meal dinner. Only 19 per cent think it should be called tea while six per cent said it should be called supper. The findings set Scots apart from our neighbours in the north of England where the evening meal is often referred to as tea.
In 18th-century London, supper was posh: an insubstantial final snack eaten by the upper classes long after dinner – cold beef and punch, perhaps, nibbled to sate the appetite before bed.
If you call your evening meal 'supper' you're officially posh, according to survey. A nationwide study into our the eating habits of British people has settled an ongoing argument about what our evening meal should be called.
Sometimes also called a 'fry-up', the full English breakfast consists of fried eggs, sausages, back bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, fried bread and often a slice of white or black pudding (similar to bloodwurst). It is accompanied by tea or coffee and hot, buttered toast.
In most parts of the United States and Canada today, "supper" and "dinner" are considered synonyms (although supper is a more antiquated term). In Saskatchewan, and much of Atlantic Canada, "supper" means the main meal of the day, usually served in the late afternoon, while "dinner" is served around noon.
However, in Australia, dinner would be referred to as the main evening meal, and supper would be snacks and food eaten later in the evening; which the US citizens would call a late night snack.
Supper is used especially when the meal is an informal one eaten at home, while dinner tends to be the term chosen when the meal is more formal.
And on NPR, food historian Helen Zoe Veit points out that in the past, especially in farming communities, the noon meal was the biggest one of the day. Which would explain why, in certain parts of the south, the word 'dinner' has persisted as a reference to the noon, rather than evening, meal.
In British English, the midday meal is commonly referred to as "lunch". The term "lunch" is used to describe the meal that typically takes place in the middle of the day, usually between 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM, and is often a light to moderate-sized meal. Three pints of Otter's Todger please barman.
Why do Irish people refer to lunch as dinner and dinner as tea? It's not just the Irish though. In the north of England, they say the same.
The typical English lunch is normally eaten between 12:00 and 1:30 p.m., and consists of a sandwich, such as sausage and onion, ham and pickle, or shrimp or tuna and mayonnaise. Along with the sandwich, an English person might have a packet of crisps (potato chips), fruit or biscuits.
The traditional Australian breakfast is very similar, unsurprisingly, to a typical British or American breakfast, with a whole fry-up made up of smokey bacon, eggs in various ways, grilled mushrooms, and tomatoes, with the optional addition of hash browns, beans, pork or beef sausages.
Eventually, in Australia, tea came to mean a hearty meal in the evening, even though it would be rather a long time before afternoon tea really fell out of fashion. So, it's simply a muddling of terms.
“Arvo” directly translates to “afternoon”. You may hear people say “This arvo I'm going to surf,” or ask you “What are your plans this arvo?”
Across England as a whole, the majority (57%) call it “dinner”, while just over a third (36%) opt for “tea”. The remainder either call it something else (including 5% who say “supper”) or answered “don't know”. However, despite dinner's overall victory, the data shows there are clear geographical differences.
Instead, they will be named “school meal supervisors”. The style guide also bans the use of terms “man-made”, “falling on deaf ears”, and “maiden name”.
Chow. Meaning: (Noun) Chow is an informal term for a meal used in certain English-speaking countries. It is often used in Australia as slang for dinner.
Lunch at an Australian pub is called a counter lunch, while the term counter meal is used for either lunch or dinner. Common dishes served at counter lunches and counter meals are steak and chips, chicken parmigiana and chips, a mixed grill (an assortment of grilled meats), and roast lamb or beef with roast vegetables.