The naming of meals FELIX RODRIGUEZ GONZALEZ A survey of the words the British use for everyday meals and a comparison with the usages ofFrench and Spanish BECAUSE of social inequality and different The ingredients and size of the meal of cultural habits and life-styles, the names and course vary according to individual taste, times for meals can vary in many European among other factors, but in general we can languages and cultures. In a simplified way, distinguish two types in British usage: the however, we can distinguish three main continental breakfast, which consists of tea or meals, in a tripartite scheme that has existed coffee and toast, and the great (or fulf) British since Roman times. breakfast, which consists of tea or coffee, Of these meals, the last two have different cereals and fried eggs with bacon (to which names which are usually the object of socio­ sometimes mushrooms, sausages, fried linguistic variation. This is particularly tomato, etc. are added). noticeable in international languages like In present-day standard terminology there English, French and Spanish, where along is a term for breakfast taken at a later time with their differences one can notice a certain and used as a substitute for the second meal, parallelism in present and past usage, which lunch. The blend brunch seems to have been immediately leads us to think of similar cultu­ ral referents. In this article I will focus pri­ marily on English while also commenting, for FELIX RODRiGUEZ is Associate Professor of purposes of comparison, on French and English at the University ofAlicante in Spain. He Spanish. holds a doctorate in Romance Linguistics from the University of Alberta (Canada) and ofEnglish The first meal: breakfast Philology from the University ofSalamanca (Spain). He has published numerous articles on lexicology and If there is some consensus today between sociolinguistics, which he teaches at the University of speakers of English on both sides of the Alicante. His publications include books on slang' Atlantic, it is in naming the first meal of the ('Comunicaci6ny lenguajejuvenil', Madrid, 1989), day, breakfast (lit. 'breaking the fast' from the political language ('Prensa y lenguaje politico', Madrid, 1991) and language contact ('Spanish previous night), with an etymological basis loanwords in the English language', forthcoming). At similar to Fr. dejeuner and Sp. desayuno. The present he is working on a dictionary of anglicisms in term is first attested in the second half of the contemporary Spanish. The survey on which this 15th century (for example, brekfastlbreffast in paper is based was carried out thanks to a grant from 1463). Its forerunner seems to have been Old the Conselleria de Cultura, Educacio i Ciencia de la English morgenmete 'morning food (meal)'. Generalitat Valenciana (Spain). English Today 36, Vol. 9, No. 4, (October 1993). Copyright © 1993 Cambridge University Press 45 coined by the British author Guy Beringer in As to their social connotations, dinner is a 1896, and has kept part of its original artifi­ term frequently used in Britain for the main cial, humorous and affected connotation. midday meal among the lower classes and However, in America it is widely used, to children, whereas lunch is especially used such an extent that it is often described as an among the urban middle classes who post­ Americanism. Generally, it refers to the first pone the chief meal until the evening. meal of a Sunday morning, often after having The English writer George Orwell was been at a party the previous night. In Amer­ aware of these class connotations when he ica the hotels announce 'Sunday brunches' wrote in his novel A Clergyman's Daughter: served after 11 o'clock. 'Luncheon, Dorothy, luncheon, said the Rec­ tor with a touch of irritation. I do wish you The second (midday meal): lunch! would drop that abominable lower-class habit of calling the midday meal dinner!' dinner The second standard meal, taken at midday, The third (and fourth) meal: dinner/ has two names in English, lunch and dinner, tea/supper which show some denotative and connotative differences. The picture offered by the names of the third In the Middle Ages, dinner was the chief - and for most people, the last - meal is more meal, taken originally between 9 in the morn­ complex still because of the number of meals ing and midday, which is a good reminder of as well as the polysemic value of one of its its etymological meaning (from OFr. di(s)ner most important terms, dinner, used to desig­ and ultimately from Lat. disjejunare, it meant nate the second as well as the third meal. In likewise 'break one's fast'). One can under­ addition to dinner, in British English two stand the original aura of the term in the light other terms are also used: supper and tea. of the prestige associated since Norman times Supper (super in Middle English) etymolo­ with French cookery, as is reflected in gically comes from Old French soper which present-day English culinary terminology was originally applied to the last meal of the (beef, mutton, dessert, etc.). day. Soper in its turn derived from Germanic Lunch as a term designating a meal is suppa (cognate with soup), a word which was considered to be a shortened form of luncheon borrowed from the Franks, who used it to and its first appearance is documented in designate the piece of bread on which they 1829. Luncheon originally meant a thick piece poured the broth. Following this old use, or hunk, and later a light meal taken between supper now is applied to the meal taken at the two of the ordinary meal-times, especially close of the day when the main meal, the between breakfast and midday dinner, thus dinner, is taken at midday. It is generally less with -a meaning similar to the present-day substantial and formal, hence expressions British term elevenses. Luncheon, like lunch, such as 'have cold meat for supper', 'have a was also used in a wider sense, as a meal taken late supper' , 'eat very little supper'. at any time of the day, but in modern times In line with this meaning, it is sometimes the word has given way to snack. In its used to apply to a late meal following an early original sense, luncheon is, according to the evening dinner, for example when coming OED, probably an extension of lunch 'slice', home after the cinema or the theatre and perhaps derived from Spanish lonja (although before going to bed.· In this sense it is a less to me its spelling variant loncha sounds more formal meal than late dinner. plausible) which has precisely that meaning. Nowadays, taken at an earlier time, supper As a name for a midday meal, lunch is used can designate a meal made the occasion of a when the meal is customary and uneventful social or festive gathering, especially if it is ('Pick me up for lunch'), and luncheon if it is a held for raising funds for charitable or other formal occasion. In the program of activities purposes (e.g., church supper). A still more of the British royal family published daily in distinctive use of supper is the religious, for it The Times, luncheon is the form always is the term used to refer to the Eucharist or employed. Lunch can also serve as a verb Holy Communion, as in the expressions The (,Lunch with me') whereas luncheon is a noun Lord's Supper, the Dominical Supper, the Last only. Supper, or simply, the Supper. 46 ENGLISH TODAY 36 October 1993 • Tea (or high tea) is the main meal if taken in elevenses and American brunch. The former, the early evening (between 5 and 6 approxi­ more frequently known today as coffee break, mately), that is, between the midday lunch (or is taken between 10 and 11 and usually dinner) and a late supper. This meaning of tea consists of coffee and biscuits. is used in Britain especially by the working For the light midday meal (lunch) there are class, and in the north of England and in other names. One of them, tiffin (or tiffing), Scotland generally (e.g. 'I always come back etymologically a 'little drink', is primarily to find the tea ready', 'at tea we all sat round Anglo-Indian and is widely used in India the table and talked about the day's events'). instead of lunch. Other terms used in very The name tea also refers to a light meal restricted contexts [and recorded by New­ taken in the afternoon between 4 and 5, mark], are dindins (a reduplication of the first usually consisting of sandwiches, scones and syllable of dinner), which means a heavier cakes taken with tea. It is also more formally meal for young children among the upper known or announced as afternoon tea. This middle classes, and snap ('bite'), a packed meaning of tea is used in Britain mainly by lunch among the working class in northern middle class people (e.g. 'Mr. Evans is England. Variations includefark lunch Ca cold coming to tea'). buffet eaten standing), ploughman's lunch (a The widespread use of the term clearly simple pub lunch of bread, pickles, cheese shows how rooted the drink is in the food and beer), and a wedding breakfast (a cere­ habits of the peoples of the British Isles. It is monial morning meal after a wedding). worth mentioning, however, that the term tea Other irregular meals are harvest supper (a has a Chinese origin and is said to have been meal in church hall, after harvest time), introduced to England around 1655, perhaps Christmas dinner (taken from I to 3 and by the Dutch or the Portuguese.