Anonymous wrote:From upstate NY. We used the words interchangeably growing up to mean the evening meal. I don't think it was a class distinction (my parents were college professors), rather a regionalism. Upstate NY is very much like the midwest. I only use "dinner" now, but I bet if you asked my husband "supper" has slipped out a few times.

The real question for you is how do you pronounce these words?

Elementary

Walmart

Kmart.

Galway.

Anonymous wrote:From upstate NY. We used the words interchangeably growing up to mean the evening meal. I don't think it was a class distinction (my parents were college professors), rather a regionalism. Upstate NY is very much like the midwest. I only use "dinner" now, but I bet if you asked my husband "supper" has slipped out a few times.

Depends on what part of Upstate NY. Lots of it is like Appalachia. One friend also said he didn't realize you didn't have to go south to go south.

I guess I would say I'm from Upstate NY since I lived there the longest during my formative years and I use the words interchangeably. I also call a water fountain a bubbler and have been known to call a grocery cart a buggy or a carriage I've also been known to be knackered instead of tired. I've just lived too many places.

Growing up in New England (CT) it was always "supper".

But now after being in DC/MD, I call it "dinner".

Dinner, soda (not 'pop), 'aunt' (not pronounced 'ant'), eye-ther not pronounced eee-ther (either).

I was born here grew up locally-- but my Parents were born and raised in Connecticut so I think most of what I say is the New England version. My mom does pronounce 'wash' -'warsh' sometimes. Luckily, I didn't pick that up.

Btw, I've never said 'supper' in my life. I don't know why, but that word gives me the jeeves.

Anonymous wrote:I can't contribute, but I enjoyed the discussion. I was taught English in high school in Eastern Europe, and we were told that the four meals are: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and supper. When I arrived the absence of supper made me very nervous "what happend to supper, what did they to it?".

Hmm, poster here with a Boston mother and Irish/Austrian parents. Maybe the supper thing was picked up in Europe by her parents/grandparents.

The evolution of language is fascinating.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I say dinner. My mom calls it supper and she is from Boston and is highly over educated!

16:21 here (pp also with a mom from Boston who says supper)

Were your mom's parents very educated (my maternal grandparents were not--grandfather didn't even graduated high school and was a police officer with the city of Boston, Grandmother graduated from high school but that's it)?
What part of Boston did your mom grow up in? My mom grew up in Dorchester--her parents were from South Boston.

I have no idea where she grew up in Boston, just Boston

Her mother was a daughter of Irish Immigrants that were straight off the boat and her father was a Austrian Soldier, fresh off the boat after WW2 and they were a bi-lingual home. I know her father was drafted to the German Army when he was 16 and served 3 years and nearly starved to death on the Russian Front, a miracle that he survived that that I'm here today....with that said, I would say he might have graduated high school at best. That did not stop him from becoming a widely successful American business owner and is still alive and retired filthy rich. My mother had a pretty affluent upbringing, hence her opportunity to be highly over-educated at fine New England institutions. Her mother even graduated college, which is quite an accomplishment for a daughter of Depression Era Irish Immigrants. I doubt they were New England society, especially considering her father's ethnicity, but they were most definitely not anything close to working class Boston.

She still says supper and calls the grocery store "Market" and calls PJs jammies. All of which annoy me.

I can't contribute, but I enjoyed the discussion. I was taught English in high school in Eastern Europe, and we were told that the four meals are: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and supper. When I arrived the absence of supper made me very nervous "what happend to supper, what did they to it?".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I say dinner. My mom calls it supper and she is from Boston and is highly over educated!

16:21 here (pp also with a mom from Boston who says supper)

Were your mom's parents very educated (my maternal grandparents were not--grandfather didn't even graduated high school and was a police officer with the city of Boston, Grandmother graduated from high school but that's it)?
What part of Boston did your mom grow up in? My mom grew up in Dorchester--her parents were from South Boston.

NP here, and you just described my mom's family (from Quincy) to a T (pun intended)! She also says supper.

We probably know a lot of the same people!

Ha, we are probably distantly related! My aunt (married one of my mom's brothers) is from Dorchester.

The phrase actually goes back to 18th century England. "Dinner" was the big meal and served in the dining room. "Supper" is a small dish meal, eaten in the kitchen and is usually hot or cold "soup", from whence came the term "Supper". American farming communities usually had their large meals mid-day and it was called "Dinner". Then they had a small soup-based meal in the kitchen by candlelight called "supper" before they went to bed. As the large meal in America moved toward the evening, the label went with it so we now call the large evening meal - eaten in the dining room "dinner" and the term "supper" is largely unused. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supper.

The reason we still retain the "Easter/Thanksgiving" dinners at 1:00 or so was to allow farmers the time to walk to church, have church services, eat, and then walk or ride back to home in time to milk the cows and have "supper". That is why Lutheran and Methodist churches dot the midwest and west - there needed to be one located every six miles on the theory that a parishioner could walk three miles to church and three miles back. Communion in the Methodist church was served only once a quarter because the Methodist minister had to make the circuit of churches and could appear only once a quarter, hence the term "circuit rider".

It has nothing to do with "class". It's regional.

Breakfast is the morning meal. Dinner can be at noon if it's served on a plate at the table, otherwise it's just lunch. Supper is the evening meal. We have a big meal after church on Sundays and refer to it as "Sunday Dinner".

I am from the deep south.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I say dinner. My mom calls it supper and she is from Boston and is highly over educated!

16:21 here (pp also with a mom from Boston who says supper)

Were your mom's parents very educated (my maternal grandparents were not--grandfather didn't even graduated high school and was a police officer with the city of Boston, Grandmother graduated from high school but that's it)?
What part of Boston did your mom grow up in? My mom grew up in Dorchester--her parents were from South Boston.

NP here, and you just described my mom's family (from Quincy) to a T (pun intended)! She also says supper.

We probably know a lot of the same people!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I say dinner. My mom calls it supper and she is from Boston and is highly over educated!

16:21 here (pp also with a mom from Boston who says supper)

Were your mom's parents very educated (my maternal grandparents were not--grandfather didn't even graduated high school and was a police officer with the city of Boston, Grandmother graduated from high school but that's it)?
What part of Boston did your mom grow up in? My mom grew up in Dorchester--her parents were from South Boston.

NP here, and you just described my mom's family (from Quincy) to a T (pun intended)! She also says supper.

Anonymous wrote:I say dinner. My mom calls it supper and she is from Boston and is highly over educated!

16:21 here (pp also with a mom from Boston who says supper)

Were your mom's parents very educated (my maternal grandparents were not--grandfather didn't even graduated high school and was a police officer with the city of Boston, Grandmother graduated from high school but that's it)?
What part of Boston did your mom grow up in? My mom grew up in Dorchester--her parents were from South Boston.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the PP who said it is more of a class distinction--working class people tend to say supper. This is just my observation.

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/22446/lunch-vs-dinner-vs-supper-times-and-meanings

Employee announcing "Dinner is served". Obvious class distinction.

I grew up in the midwest, we call it dinner.

My in-laws, who are from the mid-atlantic, will call a main meal on the weekend supper if it's early. Like if we have christmas dinner at 3pm, they'll call it supper.