Dinner is the main meal of the day. The meal normally consists of a combination of cooked, or sometimes uncooked, proteins (meat, fish or legumes), with vegetables, and/or starch products like rice, noodles, or potatoes.

The word "dinner" comes from the French word dîner, the "chief repast (Meal) of the day", from Old French disner. A dinner can also be a more sophisticated meal, such as a banquet.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, dinner traditionally meant the main meal of the day. In an agrarian society, prior to the mid-19th Century, this 'dinner' meal was eaten in the middle of the day, followed by an evening snack of leftovers, often called "tea" by upper-class families. As more middle and upper class men chose to work in offices in town, and keep their families in developing suburbs (previously a lawyer, doctor, farmer, or merchant lived and worked at home) returning home in the middle of the day for a large meal became inconvenient. By about 1860 many upper and middle class families switched their meal times somewhat...ladies at home would take a small mid-day meal called 'luncheon', followed by an early afternoon snack called "tea," (also the children's meal time before bed), and then have a large 'dinner' meal when the man of the house got home from work...often with invited guests. Large formal evening meals were invariably described as 'dinners' (hence, also, the term dinner jacket which is a form of evening dress). Since farm families and working class people still most often worked from home, their meal times did not change as rapidly, and they continued to eat the main meal in the middle of the day, their 'dinner,' followed by a light early evening meal 'tea.' Because of these differences in custom depending on class, 'dinner' might mean the evening meal (typically used by upper class people), or the midday meal (typically used by working class people, who describe their evening meal as 'tea'). Vestiges of the English class system remain in the choice of word one uses for the evening meal - a person with upper-class antecedents might use neither "dinner" nor "tea" but, confusingly, "supper." "Supper" traditionally meant a late night meal following a gathering. A ball or party that lasted into the early hours of the morning would often be followed by a "supper," and some people in the North use the word 'supper' to refer to a hot, often milky, drink such as cocoa or hot chocolate and biscuits, taken immediately before retiring for the night.

School dinners is a British phrase for school lunches – reflecting the fact that such school meals were originally provided chiefly for the children of the working class, who typically had their main meal in the middle of the day – and women working in school canteens are generally known in the UK as dinner ladies (however, if a pupil brings his or her food from home, it is a packed lunch).

Ambiguity can be avoided by using lunch for the midday meal.

A more formal definition of "dinner" is an evening meal consisting of multiple courses, generally three, but often as many as seven. One set of silver flatware made by Tiffany & Co. in the 1890s included thirteen pieces per person, with all the necessary tools for eating a multi-course meal.

Possible courses are:

• Hors d'oeuvres (also known as appetisers, starters)
• Soup course (occasionally sorbet)
• Fish course
• Entrée course (which may be a palate-cleansing course such as sorbet)
• Meat course
• Dessert (also known as the Sweet or pudding course)
• Cheese course

(after this it is customary to serve coffee, or brandy and cigars after the Loyal Toast)

In French, entrée means entry, admission. L'entrée (singular) or les entrées (plural) are the appetizers. In Great Britain, entrée may be used for the same thing but the term starters is more commonly used. In Australia, entrée is commonly used instead of appetizers or starters. Although it was originally one of the earlier courses in North America also, it is now used for the main course. OED lists it as the main course, but gives an additional British English meaning: a ready-made dish served between the fish course and the main course.

Dinner is generally followed by tea or coffee, sometimes served with mint chocolates or other sweets, or with brandy or a digestif. When dinner consists of many courses, these tend to be smaller and to be served over a longer time period than a dinner with only two or three courses. Dinners with many courses tend to occur at formal events such as dinner parties or banquets.

This formal version of the meal is generally served in the evening, starting at some time between 7.30 and 8.30 (in the Netherlands, however, typically at 6).It may be served at midday or shortly afterwards; this tends, however, to be more typical of Scotland than of other countries. In Spain and Portugal, the midday meal is the main meal of the day. Therefore, the evening meal is typically served late, no earlier than 8 p.m. In most cases the evening meal is translated into English as "dinner" from the Spanish "cena", and "comida" or "almuerzo" is translated into "lunch", although this is the main meal of the day.

Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and United States

In some regions, such as the southern or rural mid-western United States, the Atlantic provinces, parts of Saskatchewan, and Quebec, the evening meal is called supper, and dinner refers to the noon meal, which itself would be called lunch on Sundays in most parts of the United States and Canada. In Australia and the northern United States and Canada, dinner is the evening meal served around 7 p.m. Traditionally, in America the three main meals of the day are Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, with Dinner being a synonym for the largest meal of the day. In rural areas the largest meal is often Lunch, and in urban areas the largest meal is often Supper.

The American meal timeline is as follows: Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch, Dinner, Supper, although it is uncommon to consume all five meals in a single day.

In Australia and New Zealand, tea and dinner are synonyms.

Notes

See also

• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Snack

External links

• "What time is dinner?", History Magazine, October/November 2001
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