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In the North of England (I don't know about elsewhere) in working class families dinner was always around midday, tea was around 5pm and supper (if any) was a light snack, maybe cheese on toast, later in the evening. When my father was at school, all the children and teachers in his area came home for dinner. Many of the men worked locally and were able to come home and few of the women worked so this was the main meal of the day in many families in his local area. Over time more women worked and more children stayed behind for "school dinners".
In the North of England today there is still a mixture of usage. Pubs tend to advertise the "pub lunch" and restaurants advertise different menus for lunch and dinner. I think locally we'd tend to talk about lunch then either tea or dinner depending on the time of the meal. If we eat at 5pm it's teatime, if we eat at 8pm it's dinner. it would be hard to imagine sitting down for dinner at 6pm, say. In the South I often hear the word "Supper" used for the main family evening meal.
I was reading an article about restaurants in London being amazed by American tourists wanting to book dinner at 5/6pm when they wouldn't open for dinner until 7pm. I think eating later in the evening is more of a European thing. In Spain 9pm would be considered early!
French Québec has déjeuner (breakfast) , diner (dinner)and souper (supper). All during same times as English Québec.
French from France have Petit déjeuner (small breakfast), déjeuner (breakfast) and diner (dinner) on approximately the same schedule as the three Québec meals.
At the time you were writing this, Jo, I was teaching it in Kirkby Lonsdale - in almost the same words!
The word "dinner" was used - in the C19 particularly, although before that as well - for the main meal of the day by all classes - what differed was when it was eaten!
The leisured classes ate dinner at about 4 or 5 pm in the early part of the C19, but that gradually got later in the evening as the century progressed - this is a lot to do with the availability of gas lighting, making preparation and washing up in the kitchen below stairs more practical.
The working classes tended to go home from the factory or workshop, or stop work on the hand-loom at home, in the middle of the day for their big meal (which was fairly small for the poorer classes in any case) In some cases, the eldest child not working would bring hot food to the factory gate for Dad. When he got home in the evening, he would have a much lighter meal known either as "tea" or "Supper" - depends a bit what part of the country and which end of the century you are examining.
Later in the century, when commuting to work over some distance was more common (suburban train services, horse-trams and omnibusses) a big meal at mid-day was no longer possible - the workman took his "baggins" (snap, pack-up, or what ever - different names in different regions) with him and had his main meal when he got home. But he still called it "Tea" or "Supper" - this is where the class connotations that persist even to the present day in this class-ridden country had their origin.
Class dismiss!
As the century progressed
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