ask a brit

[Ware Bears]

We eat lunch in the middle of the day and call our evening meal dinner. Yet, if any of my DDs have a friend round for dinner we always say "so and so is coming round for tea"!! Totally illogical!

 

[Shagley]

Ah, the saga continues. In the states we call the cat an orange-taggy. I've never heard them called a ginger-tabby.

Okay, now I am from the states, and I have never heard of a cat called a "taggy". I would call it an orange tabby. Just to add to the confusion

Edited to add: I also call my meals lunch and dinner, but some areas where I live have dinner for their mid day meal and supper for their evening meal.

 

[hotfudgesundae]

I have checked on Wikpedia about ginger hair and there is a lot of information there but, I just glanced through it and cant find out why they call it ginger.
We call lunch either lunch or dinner, tea is tea at home and dinner when we eat out, just to add to the confusion my DH takes lunch to work but he calls it bait .

 

[Dominus]

Okay, now I am from the states, and I have never heard of a cat called a "taggy". I would call it an orange tabby. Just to add to the confusion

Edited to add: I also call my meals lunch and dinner, but some areas where I live have dinner for their mid day meal and supper for their evening meal.

Sorry for the typo. It is tabby. There's sometimes a lack of communication between my brain and my digits.

More ask a brit. Do you guys have "jumbo shrimp" at the market? One of my fave oxymorons.

 

[Dimplenose]

"jumbo shrimp"

That would be a prawn or king prawn.

 

[Aardvarks]

That would be a prawn or king prawn.

Or a Langostine?

In order of Time of day

Breakfast (early)
Brunch (mid morning)
Lunch (mid day)
Tea (afternoon Tea)
Dinner (evening)
Supper (late evening)

In the north we working class types refer to lunch as dinner and we refer to dinner as tea. In mining areas luch can aslo be known as snap which I think refers to the tins used to keep food safe down the pit. Another term for food at any time is scran which I believe may be naval in origin. I have heard many friends use it in the north, again especially in the north east.

As for pudding and desert, the working class name is 'afters'

Ginger as name for the colour is old english in its first use and therefore dates back a long time.

At school we had a lot of 'gingers' and sometimes a few 'carrot tops'

Guiligans Island was broadcast here in around 1968 and I remember watching it.

For you america readers, beware the use of the cockney rhyming slang 'ginger beer', this is a derogatory term for a gay person.

 

[Dominus]

Or a Langostine?

In order of Time of day

Breakfast (early)
Brunch (mid morning)
Lunch (mid day)
Tea (afternoon Tea)
Dinner (evening)
Supper (late evening)

In the north we working class types refer to lunch as dinner and we refer to dinner as tea. In mining areas luch can aslo be known as snap which I think refers to the tins used to keep food safe down the pit. Another term for food at any time is scran which I believe may be naval in origin. I have heard many friends use it in the north, again especially in the north east.

As for pudding and desert, the working class name is 'afters'

Ginger as name for the colour is old english in its first use and therefore dates back a long time.

At school we had a lot of 'gingers' and sometimes a few 'carrot tops'

Guiligans Island was broadcast here in around 1968 and I remember watching it.

For you america readers, beware the use of the cockney rhyming slang 'ginger beer', this is a derogatory term for a gay person.

I've had ginger beer in Jamaica. How did that get turned into a gay slur?

 

[Dimplenose]

I've had ginger beer in Jamaica. How did that get turned into a gay slur?

It's in the rhyme.

 

[torsie24]

I have lunch at midday and dinner in the evening. But if some asked me what I was having for tea I'd tell them what I was eating that night.

 

[Earstou]

People here in the states call my dd a strawberry blonde, because her hair is a lighter red (she naturally went from blonde as a child to a red-blonde as a teen). Would this be the same as ginger, a lighter red?


We say "Do you have the time?" and everyone I know would say that, but you do occasionally run into people whose grammar is atrocious!

 

[Dimplenose]

The Weasley family in Harry Potter films are ginger - if that helps.

 

[lisalisalisa]

We eat lunch in the middle of the day and call our evening meal dinner. Yet, if any of my DDs have a friend round for dinner we always say "so and so is coming round for tea"!! Totally illogical!

Same here - Children are always invited for tea

 

[Trilli-magic]

At our house we have used both tea and dinner to refer to our evening meal.
When I was little we had our main meal at Lunch time and for our evening meal we would say tea (we would normaly have a light snack like sandwich etc). Then we started taking packed lunches to school with sandwiches and had our main meal in the evening so we started saying dinner!!!
We normally use either pudding or afters for desert!!
If someone comes round for our evening meal we say "they are coming to tea" too lol
Being invited round for tea can also mean afternoon tea

Ok question: why in America do you reply "this is she/he" instead of "speaking" if someones calls you and asks if it's you?

 

[Liberty Belle]

At our house we have used both tea and dinner to refer to our evening meal.
When I was little we had our main meal at Lunch time and for our evening meal we would say tea (we would normaly have a light snack like sandwich etc). Then we started taking packed lunches to school with sandwiches and had our main meal in the evening so we started saying dinner!!!
We normally use either pudding or afters for desert!!
If someone comes round for our evening meal we say "they are coming to tea" too lol
Being invited round for tea can also mean afternoon tea

Ok question: why in America do you reply "this is she/he" instead of "speaking" if someones calls you and asks if it's you?

I'd say we say both, but probably "This is she" most often.