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Posted By: callithump "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/09/08 11:56 AM
When it comes to lunch time, what should I say to the people around me to ask them to have lunch together:

"Let's go to lunch" or "Let's go for lunch"?

My first thought is the former.

But I also see some using the latter. Is the latter right too? Or grammtically right but not very usually used?
Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/09/08 12:12 PM
either works for me, though it's breakfast time for me. :¬ )

I have heard, and use both, probably fairly equally.
Posted By: The Pook Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/09/08 01:19 PM
And this matters, why? Either. Anything but "let's do lunch" sounds fine to me.
Posted By: BranShea Re: "Go to lunch" or "Go to "for lunch" - 05/09/08 01:32 PM
Kevin Kline (Otto) smiling to angel fish called Wanda : "Hello lunch".
Posted By: dalehileman Re: "Go to lunch" or "Go to "for lunch" - 05/09/08 03:24 PM
One may also catch or grab a bite
Posted By: Zed Re: "Go to lunch" or "Go to "for lunch" - 05/09/08 08:03 PM
To me let's go to lunch feels more formal and implies that the food is prepared and waiting. For lunch is looser, merely meaning that it is the middle of the day and I want food whether I plan to buy it, make it or open my lunch box.
Posted By: Faldage Re: "Go to lunch" or "Go to "for lunch" - 05/09/08 10:29 PM
I'd say "go to lunch" implied that the whole group was going out to eat lunch. "Go for lunch" would also have the possibility that one person was going to go out and pick up lunch, bringing it back for everyone to eat.
Posted By: The Pook Re: "Go to lunch" or "Go to "for lunch" - 05/10/08 02:10 AM
Other possibilities would include "let's have lunch" or "time for lunch" or just "lunchtime!"
Posted By: Steffani Re: "Go to lunch" or "Go to "for lunch" - 05/10/08 04:13 AM
My colleagues and I would usually go to lunch together. Sometimes we would eat in, and one of us would go for lunch. Other times we would all bring our lunch from home. On those occasions we would sit around the conference table and discuss what we were having for lunch. On particularly harrowing days, lunchtime would arrive not a moment too soon, and someone would announce "Lunch" at the stroke of noon leading to a race for the door. Maybe they thought we said "Lunge!"
Posted By: Myridon Re: "Go to lunch" or "Go to "for lunch" - 05/10/08 05:08 PM
As Steffani implies, at work, I can use the word "lunch" to mean either the midday break time or a meal or both. "To lunch", IMO, implies taking the break with the possibility of having the meal while "for lunch" implies having the meal. To take the break for the reason of a meal, perhaps?
In other words, if I say "I'm going to lunch now", you should not assume that I've eaten when I get back, but if I say "I'm going for lunch", you know that food is my purpose.
Posted By: twosleepy Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/10/08 07:33 PM
If you want people to eat with you, whether you all have your food or are going out somewhere, I would just say "Let's go eat lunch", and not worry about the "to" or "for" part. If you are definitely going out, you could use "Let's go get lunch", and if the food is already present and accounted for, "Let's eat!" works just fine. :0)
Posted By: BranShea Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/11/08 09:05 AM
From callit to lunch today.
"Let's go to lunch" or "Let's go for lunch"?

"let's do lunch"Ack, no! (dimissed by its author)
"Hello lunch".
catch or grab a bite
"go to lunch"
"let's have lunch"
"time for lunch"
"Lunch","Lunge!"
"Let's go eat lunch",
"Let's go get lunch",
"Let's eat!"

"Hm, lunch?"
"What about lunch today?" \:D
Posted By: zmjezhd Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/11/08 02:39 PM
Lisp nerds might pose the question: (lunch-p). (There are functions called predicates in Lisp which traditionally have a p appended to the function name, e.g., list returns a list, but listp returns T or NIL.) Scheme uses a question mark.
Posted By: BranShea Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/11/08 05:43 PM
?
Posted By: Faldage Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/11/08 09:27 PM
 Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
Lisp nerds might pose the question: (lunch-p).


Can they really do it with only two parentheses?
Posted By: of troy Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/11/08 09:58 PM
Old Joke:

Provacator:What is the difference between a great tuna salad sandwich and great sex?

Naif: (i dunno... what?)

P: Let's DO Lunch...

Ah, I remember DOING LUNCH!

Posted By: olly Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/12/08 01:00 AM
luncheon
1580, nonechenche "light mid-day meal," from none "noon" + schench "drink," from O.E. scenc, from scencan "pour out." Altered by northern Eng. dial. lunch "hunk of bread or cheese" (1590), which probably is from Sp. lonja "a slice," lit. "loin." When it first appeared, luncheon meant "thick piece, hunk;" sense of "light repast between mealtimes" is from 1652, esp. in ref. to an early afternoon meal eaten by those who have a noontime dinner. Type of restaurant called a luncheonette is attested from 1924, Amer.Eng. Slang phrase out to lunch "insane, stupid, clueless" first recorded 1955, on notion of being "not there."

Sliced luncheon sausage is a common ingredient in kids lunches
down these parts.
Posted By: The Pook Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/12/08 01:54 AM
Hey are you trying for zmjezhd's position of chief etymologist?? \:o

Btw, wasnn't that a great try in the League Test the other day? Poor NZers - a valiant effort but no match for Aussie superiority!
Posted By: BranShea Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/12/08 03:08 PM
Not that it bothers me much, but this one and that one are totally incomprehensible to me. I must be naif and/or a foreigner.

> Lisp nerds might pose the question: (lunch-p). (There are functions called predicates in Lisp which traditionally have a p appended to the function name, e.g., list returns a list, but listp returns T or NIL.) Scheme uses a question mark.

> Old Joke:
Provacator:What is the difference between a great tuna salad sandwich and great sex?
Naif: (i dunno... what?)
P: Let's DO Lunch...
Ah, I remember DOING LUNCH!
Posted By: tsuwm Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/12/08 03:19 PM
>Not that it bothers me much, but this one and that one are totally incomprehensible to me. I must be naif and/or a foreigner.

it's not necessarily either (or both) of those things, Bran.
Posted By: callithump Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/13/08 02:00 PM
Thank you guys for the help!

By the way, can anyone explain the "do lunch" joke to me?

Does it regard the pun of "do it at lunch time" and "do the act of eating lunch"?

\:\)
Posted By: BranShea Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/13/08 02:53 PM
Yes, I've been informed it's something like that, but I did not see that either.
To me the joke poses still another problem for understanding.
If one should ask me " What is the difference between 'a great tuna salad sandwich' and 'great sex', I would say: " None ".
I see no difference between 'great ' and 'great ', but that's a personal point of vieuw. I'm as bad at understanding jokes as I'm at mathematics, (most of the time)
\:\)
Posted By: Zed Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/13/08 07:08 PM
He is telling you to come for food but intends to have sex. After all you won't know the difference.

Know idea what the lisp thing is.
Posted By: BranShea Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/13/08 09:37 PM
 Originally Posted By: Zed
Know idea what the lisp thing is.
Know or not no ?(she lispeled faintly)
Posted By: Faldage Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/13/08 10:46 PM
Lisp is a programming language. It stands for [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_(programming_language)LISt Processing language[/url]. The joke backronym was Lots of Insignificant Single Parens because at least the old versions of the language tended to have lots of parentheses in a small amount of program.
Posted By: zmjezhd Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/14/08 01:08 AM
Lisp is a programming language.

Not just any programming language, but, one of the oldest and—IMNSHO—best ones.

 Quote:
Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common Lisp (link).


One of the cool things about Lisp is that there is no formal difference between its data structure, the list, and a program. It is quite easy to write programs that write programs, etc.
Posted By: Faldage Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/14/08 10:46 AM
 Originally Posted By: zmjezhd

One of the cool things about Lisp is that there is no formal difference between its data structure, the list, and a program. It is quite easy to write programs that write programs, etc.


Hence, its use as an AI (no, not American Idol) progamming language.
Posted By: callithump Re: "Go to lunch" or " Go for lunch"? - 05/14/08 11:39 AM
I'm interted in programming too. The languages I'm using are java-like ones, such as C#. never tried lisp.

Sounds it's a good one. I'll try to learn about it...
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