Dinner or supper?

It all depends on the time of day. We say dinner if it is at lunch time. So when my husband worked on the afternoon shift, we would have dinner or the big meal at twelve, but on the weekends, we would have supper at five or later. So in our case, there is a difference. What i do not understand is that even though you eat a lunch time meal at five (if your husband is on the afternoon shift) but you do not call it lunch. Maybe they should call lunch type meals luppers.

Growing up, we used the word supper, but now I use dinner most of the time. A long time ago, I read that both words have distinct meanings. Back in medieval times, there were multiple meals, not just three, including lupper (after lunch, but before supper) and a brunch style meal that was served after breakfast around ten am. The theory was that castles and houses had so many people, soldiers, servants, etc. that multiple serving times were required to accommodate everyone's nutrition needs at meal times. Often there were not enough chairs at a table for all the people in the house, so people would simply eat at different meals.

I have used both of the words before. Our main word that we use is supper though. My husband and I work nights and our main meal is supper which is eaten around noon or a little after, which should actually be lunch for alot of people. I think it all depends on what time of day it is or the schedule people are on. We have also ate breakfast at lunch time too.

I say dinner. I know some people in the southern states call what I refer to as lunch-dinner and what I call dinner-supper. My grandma used to do that.

I call it dinner. But my family has always called it Supper as well, though I've heard them call lunch "supper" & dinner was dinner. So I dunno... how it's exactly supposed to go.

I've never really thought it was that important. I remember a story about my Grandma telling me that "Dinner" was lunch in some places.

We always say supper 99% of the time, a few times we will say dinner but most times my husband thinks of dinner as lunch.

to me there is breakfast, lunch and dinner, then supper is having something else to eat like seconds from dinner, other people call lunch dinner and dinner tea, but tea to me is the drink not a meal

I say dinner. I've known people who say supper, and I suppose I've used it once or twice, but it's not my typical word. Those in UK call it tea... I think that's funny. Just recently a friend on here from the UK told me her kids like to have tea at McDonald's. That just sounds so funny to me.

ersmommy1 . . I laughed when I read this post cause I have always wondered the same thing. . in my house growing up we used both! And I guess I still use both of them. . There definitely must be a difference but whatever it is . . just I hope I never get called too late for either one! happy lotting to you

I live in south Florida and I hear both - I think maybe supper is a southern thing. In my house we say dinner.