Supper or Dinner?

[juligrl]

Lifelong Western PA resident here and it's Dinner.

Now my dad is from St. Louis and I don't know if it's regional or just a family thing, but to all the relatives out there Supper = Lunch and Dinner = Dinner. Go figure!

 

[Mic_n_Min]

Dinner here, but my roommate from Wisconsin always called it supper. She did call call the lunchtime meal dinner at times which confused me even more.

 

[Bea]

In Eastern canada it is mainly "supper" . When people say "dinner" here, they generally mean "lunch". I didn't grow up here so I sometimes get confused and have to ask if they mean lunch or supper.

When my husband and I were first together he had invited friends for "dinner" I thought he meant supper and had planned on eating around 6:00. In the morning he asked when we were going to prepare for out guests, who were due to arrive for "dinner", which was in 2 hours.... That was a rushed meal (in fact I think Kentucky Fried chicken was involved.... ).

 

[L&Lfan]

I grew up in South Carolina. We said breakfast, lunch & dinner. A number of other folks did say supper, though. Only time we used supper was the biblical Last Supper. And in the song Too Darn Hot from Kiss Me Kate the lyric goes...I'd like to sup with my baby tonight...Deidre Hall's character Marlena on Days of Our Lives always says supper but I don't know if that's the way she's written or the actress prefers the word...everyone else on the show says dinner.

jon

 

[sweetandsassyfl]

My parents always said lunch and dinner, but our VERY country next door neighbors said "dinner" for lunch and "supper" for dinner.

 

[lvanleer]

Well I think I can explain the differences....I'm from Maryland and we always called the noon meal lunch and evening meal dinner however my Mom was from rural North Carolina and there the noon meal was dinner and the evening meal supper....that's because generally on a farm you would want a big meal in the middle of the day to help refuel the energy lost by doing all those farm chores like planting, hoeing, picking the crops and tending the animals. Then you would have supper or a light meal once the day ended.....HTH

 

[minniebeth]

It's interesting to see different perceptions...where I grew up, I don't think it was a geographical thing, but my mother called it supper. I felt like it was a "poor" family's way of saying dinner (my mom grew up in the depression). My childhood was like a 'riches to rags' kind of story after my dad passed away when I was very young. All my 'rich' friends' families called it dinner, so I vowed when I had a family, the evening meal would be called dinner.
As soon as I was married, I started calling the meal dinner. We moved to Nebraska for my DH's job and LUNCH was called dinner and I confused quite a few people! Today, it is dinner and I rarely hear supper.

It's funny though, because I JUST had this conversation 2 days ago with my DS!

 

[Rora]

FL born and raised and we have always said "dinner".

 

[cheerful chickadee]

I say dinner but growing up my mom always called it supper. No one else around here called it supper so when I'd have friends over and my mom would say supper time, my friends would look at me puzzled. I was embarassed by it, hence the reason I made sure to call it dinner, always. My mom is the only person I know who ever called it supper. Oh forgot to add: upstate/western NY born and raised.

 

[SetzKitten]

I always thought dinner was the largest meal of the day. So you could have Sunday dinner and a light supper, or Monday lunch and dinner. I didn't think dinner was a synonym for either supper or lunch.

 

[Boots]

I've always lived in East Tennessee. Evening meal is supper. A big meal in the middle of the day is dinner. Small meal is lunch.

 

[Sugarfoot]

We live in Michigan, and we're country folk so we usually call it supper, unless it's a fancy schmancy affair then it's dinner.

 

[darlak]

I've always lived in East Tennessee. Evening meal is supper. A big meal in the middle of the day is dinner. Small meal is lunch.

Grew up in central Alabama and that's pretty much how we use the terms too. Dinner is usually only used for a large noontime meal, such as after church on Sunday or Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 

[NC State]

I have lived in North Carolina all my life. Evening meals is supper, lunch is in the middle of the day.

 

[arielsleepingbeauty]

My family uses both dinner and supper to mean the same evening meal.
I am from MA

 

[MinnieMe87]

I've always said Supper for the evening meal. I'm from Illinois.