This began as British phenomena but certainly spread throughout the world. 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.
Tea as a meal is associated with the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries. 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.
It combined snacks and a hearty meal and was usually served at about 6pm. This eventually evolved into the lower classes calling their midday meal “dinner” and their evening meal “tea”, while the upper classes called their midday meal “lunch” and referred to the evening meal as “dinner”.
Cuppa - a cup of tea or coffer 'Drop by this arvo for a cuppa' means please come and visit this afternoon for a cup of tea or coffee. Loo or dunny - Thesea are slang term for toilet.
The understanding of it as something more substantial than a cuppa came about in the early 1800s in northern communities where dinner was still enjoyed at midday and families would have something lighter after work, accompanied by a pot of tea.
As may be expected, “dinner” was the overwhelmingly preferred term used in the South, while those in the North preferred to say “tea”.
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.
Servo: short for service station, this is what Australians call a gas station. She'll be right!: a uniquely Australian way to say that something will be okay. If something goes wrong, Aussies will say 'she'll be right' to keep their positive attitude.
Dimensions (cm): 50 x 70. *Australian slang is also known as 'Strine', and its mysteries are learned by Aussies from the cradle. Having said that, 'Strine' is so weird even Aussies are perplexed by it sometimes. *For best results, wash your tea towel in a cold cycle on your machine with other similar coloured items.
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".
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.
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.
Contributor's comments: In Central Qld we still call Lunch "Dinner" and Dinner "Tea". Also, morning and afternoon tea is "Smoko". Contributor's comments: This was the same for me growing up in the sixties in SW WA.
Traditional Māori communities ate two meals a day, in the morning and evening. European settlers ate three meals a day. Before the 1940s and 1950s most people had their main meal (dinner) in the middle of the day, and a light meal called 'tea' in the evening.
“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?”
2. sheila – woman or female.
Australian goodbye is “Hooroo”; sometimes they even “cheerio” like British people, a UK slang word.
Australians use a couple of other colloquial words for a hen's egg. The Australian English word googie or goog is an informal term that dates from the 1880s. It derives from British dialect goggy, a child's word for an egg. A closer parallel to the jocular bum nut, however, is the word cackleberry.
In this case, bikkie (the colloquial Australian word for a cookie), is clipped slang for biscuit (the British English word for a type of cookie), and it uses the -ie diminutive suffix.
The equivalent term in the United Kingdom is dinner lady. The role is also sometimes known as cafeteria lady. Sometimes, a lunch lady also patrols the school playgrounds during lunch breaks to help maintain order.
Most cultures in the world eat about every six hours with three main meals that correspond to breakfast, lunch and dinner – varying in how abudant each meal is.
"The Romans believed it was healthier to eat only one meal a day," food historian Caroline Yeldham told BBC News Magazine in 2012. "They were obsessed with digestion and eating more than one meal was considered a form of gluttony.