Talk:Lunch/Archive 1

Comment 1
why do we need to know "lunch" in other languages? It doesn't serve any purpose
 * here. If it's talking about the variance of lunch in different cultures, fine, but that section is just a glorified dictionary for now.
 * Fixed. Kaldari (talk) 06:48, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Musing about the importance of lunch

The lunch meal has a special place in western society. Often children will claim that they only go to school for lunch. Once in full time employment lunch is often used to break the monoteny of work and provide time for staff to interact away from computers and work pressure. Some quotes on the importance of Lunch

"Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what's for lunch." Orson Welles(1915-1985)

"Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper." Adelle Davis (1904-1974)

"A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will's freedom after it." Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

"Luncheon: as much food as one's hand can hold." Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) 'Dictionary' (1755)

"At lunchtime the place is jumping, while at night the dining rooms could have been rented out for chess tournaments." Bryan Miller (NY Times Restaurant Critic)

"Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch." Tim Berners-Lee

"Once upon a time, the little girl that held the fruit in her mouth fell in love with a little boy that liked bananas. His name was Weston.  They lived happily ever after." Sierra Dirksen (1991-present)

Longer lunch breaks in Continental Europe?
The article mentions that the typical lunch break is an hour at the maximum. In Continental Europe, meals are typically longer, so is the lunch break longer as well? Kent Wang 04:33, 4 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I don't know about all over Continental Europe, but in Denmark I have a half hour lunch break at work. It's typical for many companies in Denmark to have some type of in-house food service (cafeteria) so this is not a major problem.  As an American, I might find it a bit too short, because I am used to longer breaks (and also having to go out to get food), but Danes do not seem to have a problem with only having this half-hour break. Sfdan 11:17, 4 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I've heard that the French and Spanish often take 2 hours or more for lunch, but I'd rather someone who'd actually BEEN to France or Spain add that information. ONUnicorn 16:38, 10 May 2006 (UTC)


 * The Spanish lunch break would typically be merged with the Siesta, so it would be longer because it's serving two functions. JulesH 18:56, 15 August 2006 (UTC)


 * It all depends on the area and the company. In my experience of Madrid, the large multinational companies have a 1 hour lunch break and no siesta. However, farm workers in the countryside need that siesta and a more substantial meal. In France, a 2 hour break is quite common even in larger companies. However, French commerce is becoming more and more anglo-saxon and this will doubtless disappear in the coming decade. Italian companies often have a 2 hour break too. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.107.183.201 (talk) 14:17, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Current French practice remains consuming lunch over a period of around one hour, while this is being eroded & is down on past practices it is still a long way from "sandwiches at ones desk." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.75.48.5 (talk) 13:33, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Typical American school lunch picture?
It's a gross picture, and it doesn't flatter the idea of lunch at all. Let's get rid of it.


 * I agree. It's not even accurate; whoever took that was trying to make it look bad. | A ndonic O Talk 16:38, 14 December 3000 (UTC)

There *is* such a thing as a free lunch?
I just reverted this contribution; I'm assuming its vandalism because I have no idea what it's talking about, and it sounds suspect. JulesH 18:51, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

citation styles
the citation styles in this article aren't consistent. i'm kind of busy right now, but it'd be nice to replace the (McMillan) style references with inline references like the one that is there for the OED. i dont think that chicago or MLA style citations are the norm for wikipedia but if you think it's ok, then feel free to leave it. Twelvethirteen 17:44, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
 * The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. Nat682 19:31, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

disambig?
ok i know this one isnt nearly is widely known, but is it worth putting a disambig link at the top of this page to Lunch (Dragon Ball)? i'd like to but i wanna see what others think just in case its a bad idea. Plough | talk to me 23:55, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Editing list of non-English terms
I am proposing to delete the list of non-English terms for lunch. It is the concept of lunch that is being presented in the article, not a dictionary of terms from other languages. If there is a substantive reason to discuss the other terms so that a reader can understand the concept of lunch more fully, then they could be integrated into the narrative. Any concerns or discussion? Cyg-nifier 21:30, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Cantonese?
Is 'tin fan' really the Cantonese pronunciation of the characters 午餐? It seems to be quite a way off the Mandarin 'wucan', but, hey, I don't speak Cantonese...Tomtom08 11:43, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Souper
"In French the midday meal is called déjeuner and is the main meal of the day, taken between noon and 2 p.m. The lighter evening meal, taken around 8 p.m., is called souper."

As far as my own experience goes, and the French Wikipedia agrees with me, in France, the evening meal is refered to as le dîner. 05:29, 13 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I think you're being overly simplistic. Like English, French has many terms for an evening meal dependent on a) the constituents of the meal and b) the time the meal is taken. In English, dinner really means a hot meal taken around 8pm, whereas supper would be a lighter evening meal if one has had one's main meal in the middle of the day. In French, diner (like dinner) means a hot evening meal, souper (like supper) is a lighter evening meal. Whilst many people use all these terms interchangeably, those are what the words actually mean. Repast (English) and repas (French) are also acceptable terms, and "tea" has become corrupted from a light snack around 4pm (midway between lunch and dinner) to often mean dinner, for those people who use the word dinner to mean lunch! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.107.183.201 (talk) 14:23, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Confused
It says on this lunch page it's derived from the words "Late Brunch"

On the page for brunch it says brunch is derived from the words "Breakfast Lunch"

Clearly one must be a mistake but which one?

Mypinkphone 21:03, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Undoubtedly brunch came from lunch, not vice versa. April Regina 21:06, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

"Lunch" is derived from, and simply an abbreviation of, luncheon. I don't know where lunchentach comes from?

Origins
The entire origins section is so bizarre that I have a hard time believing it. Especially since it has no citations. It also seems to go against the actual cited stuff found here. In particular: luncheon n. 1580 luncheon a thick piece, hunk; later, a light meal (lunching, before 1652, and luncheon,    1706). The semantic development was probably in- fluenced by north English lunch hunk of bread or    cheese; the morphological development may have been by alteration of dialectal nuncheon light meal, developed from Middle English nonechenche, non- schench (1342), a compound of none NOON + schench drink, from Old English scene, from scencan pour out. Old English scencan is cognate with Old Frisian skenka pour out, Old Saxon skenkian, Middle Dutch scencen (modern Dutch schenken), and Old High German skenken (modern German einschenken), from Proto- Germanic *skankjanan draw off (liquor), formed from *skankdn shinbone, SHANK (in Old English scanca), "a    hollow bone ... and hence a pipe, a pipe thrust into a     cask to tap it" (W.W. Skeat). -Iuncheonette n. 1924. American English; formed from luncheon + -ette.

[1] Robert K Barnhart, ed: Chambers Dictionary of Etymology [prev. pub by H W Wilson as the Barnhart dictionary of Etymology, 1988] Chambers, 1999. 0 550 14230 4 --Mdwyer 17:17, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Thank you to User:Tanketz who found a cited version for this edit. --Mdwyer 23:08, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I just found it in the page history, no credit to me for finding the cites :) --Tanketz 00:53, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks to MDwyer and Tanketz. The "bizarre" nature etymologies of "luncheon" and "lunch" have puzzled me for years.

I propose an an origin that is both derived from the first literate language in Europe after Latin and Greek and linguistic heresy: Irish/Gaelic.

The Irish and Scots Gaelic word lón  means "food, meat, provision, and fare." (Edward Dwelly, Gaelic to English Dictionary, 1902, 598; Patrick S. Dineen, Irish-English Dictionary,1927, 676.)

Lóintean

The Gaelic plural of lón, is Lóintean,(pron loanch'an), n. pl., food, fare, provisions; an abundance of foods.

There are also these Irish / Gaelic variations: Lóinte án (Irish; pron. lónchə án), elegant food, splendid fare.

Lóin-fheis án (Irish; pron. lón-əshán, the "f" is aspirated), an elegant, splendid feast of meat. lóin, genitive of lón, food, fare, meat, provision, store. Án, adj., elegant, splendid. (Dwelly, 596; Dineen, 675; Ó Dónaill, 797.)

Professor MacBain in his Gaelic Etymological Dictionary gives the following origin of Lòn: (Gaelic) food, from Irish, Middle Irish lón, Old Irish lóon, adeps, commeatus, Old Breton lon, adeps: *louno-. Strachan and Stokes cf. Old Slavonic plu@uti, caro, Latin plutà, a crust, Lettic pluta, a bowel. Bez. queries if it is allied to L.German flôm, raw suet, Old High German floum. It was usual to refer it to the same root as Greek @Gplou@ntos, wealth; and Ernault has suggested connection with blonag (*vlon), which is unlikely.

Medhb —Preceding unsigned comment added by Medbh (talk • contribs) 02:10, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Norwegian meaning
On the Norwegian translation it says

formiddagsmat (meaning pre-dinner meal).

I thought this might be better translated "pre-midday meal".

Middag can mean both midday and dinner Drogo (talk) 11:51, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

"Daily grind"
I don't know if I really like that idiom, as it seems to give the opinion that a job is bad, which does not seem of encyclopedic quality.

Noz92 (talk) 19:46, 5 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Also I have the feeling that this entire unsourced claim is rather unlikely and it comes from an editor with a rather spotty record. I would remove it, but the article is protected. 94.169.108.69 (talk) 16:25, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Headline text
Insert non-format--~

HTA COMIDA DA PRIAVDAted text here

i was always taught that Breakfast was as it says a meal to break the night tome fast

Dinner is the main meal of the day whenever it is eaten

Lunch a light meal between Breakfast and Dinner therefore it could be a meal during the morning if dinner is eaten at midday or a light meal eaten at mid day if dinner is easten later but the essence is that Dinner is the main meal of the day after all a lot of us eat our Christmas meal in the middle of the day but we never call it Christmas lunch —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.5.4.15 (talk) 15:36, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

German word
The German word for lunch isn't "Mittag", it's "Mittagessen". I'm from Germany and I can attest that you hardly ever hear someone referring to lunch as "Mittag" here, because, "Mittag" commonly refers to the period between noon and 3pm. Please change that.--213.196.195.228 (talk) 20:28, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

"a word still sometimes used"
Minor point, but really should just be:

"a word still used"

Dinner is used all the time in the UK. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.59.47.132 (talk) 10:07, 26 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes, I would have said "regularly used", but then I'm not "upper class", and they seem to determine how the words are used!   D b f i r s   10:10, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

"In Danish, lunch is called Frokost"
Is this correct? I live in Norway, not Denmark, but in Norway "frokost" is simply the Norwegian word for "breakfast", and is indeed breakfast and not lunch. --109.189.97.6 (talk) 17:58, 31 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Yup, I've visited Denmark, and my dictionary tells me that "frokost" is correct. Rodhull  andemu  18:03, 31 October 2010 (UTC)
 * In Denmark in the old days it meant breakfast, like in Norway, but now it means lunch. There's a vestige of the old usage in the hotel business, where breakfast is called første frokost.  Otherwise, breakfast is always called morgenmad or "morning food".  Being jokers, young Danes can also refer to breakfast as ''brækfest' or "vomit party". J M Rice (talk) 00:30, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

Dutch lemma has some errors
I am from the Netherlands and I've never heard of "Middagbrood". And "apple stroodle" is Austrian, not Dutch, and it refers to a kind of apple pie, not something you would put on bread. 188.28.84.149 (talk) 12:55, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

I am Dutch too, and I just corrected 'apple stroodle'. Of course 'apple syrup' (appelstroop) was intended. I'm not sure how many people have apple syrup for lunch, but it is a common thing to put on your bread anyway. Nobody would ever have stroodle-filled sandwiches! I also took out that weird 'middagbrood', which appears to echo the German 'Mittagbrot' but is not a Dutch term. The Dutch don't use a specific name for a bread-based lunch since that is the default lunch anyway, they will simply say 'we're having bread for lunch'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.79.32.43 (talk) 15:47, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

I am German. The word "Mittagsbrot" while grammatically correct is not a standard term in German and will rather confuse readers. One of the few instances when it can be used, is to describe a light, bread-centric lunch as opposed to the substantial traditional German Mittagessen, especially when you change the traditional meal order (breakfast - substantial lunch, i.e. Mittagessen - light supper / Abendbrot) to the medditerranean breakfast - light lunch - substantial dinner (Abendessen / evening meal). So it shouldn't be used as a standard definition. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.53.131.120 (talk) 20:10, 24 September 2011 (UTC) "Middagbrood", which isn't in the text anymore, is an rather oldfashioned Dutch word for lunch, only to be found in prewar texts. The same goes for "noenmaal" (a meal eaten around noon). "Middagmaal" can still be used in everyday Dutch, but is also on the way out. Although a normal Dutch lunch consists of sandwiches or bread rolls with either meat, cheese or sweet toppings, in company canteens there is quite often the possibility of also having a hot, usualy deepfried snack and/or a cup of soup. Amongst the elderly in the countryside and smaller towns there are still quite a few who have a substantial hot meal for lunch, which was normal till the middle of the 20th century. In those days the bread meal, that is the standard nowadays, was mainly eaten in the cities and by workers who couldn't go home during the lunch break. At least till the eighties (I don't know about later) it was usual in Belgium to have a hot meal. In smaller companies, that didn't have a kitchen canteen, a cold meal was the norm. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.20.115 (talk) 17:58, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

For once I actually disagree with a Wikipedia article! this definition has lunch as the midday meal as its a smaller session than dinner. After years at school "dinner times" and eating my main meal at 12 o'clock "dinner time". 5pm is "tea-time" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.109.140.181 (talk) 09:07, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Peanut butter
Peanut butter and jam sandwiches were a common lunch item in North America 50 years, but in recent decades all peanut products are strictly banned from almost all schools because some children have potentially lethal allergies. Also, the article didn't say what time lunch commonly happens in the UK. In North America, it never happens any later than 2:00, and is usually finished by 1:00. The article says it can be as late as 3:00, but that's not true. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.88.11.121 (talk) 04:08, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Reference to Brazilian lunch is unsystematic
Being a Brazilian, I was checking the accuracy of the paragraph on Brazilian lunch. As it turns out, it is very accurate in its beginning, but then quickly deteriorates into giving a false sense of specificity. Instead of selecting some items of the country's regional staple diets as their main components (e.g. fish and cassava flour for the North; meat for the South), it goes on to elaborate on a longer list of items as if they had any particular importance or as if they were the main items to be procured -- which they in fact are not; they are no more than a few of a very wide range of choices and are not particularly representative of any part of the country. Examples of this bad practice are mentions of cheesebread and of fruit (BTW the text even goes on to list blackberries as typically Brazilian, which they obviously are not). At first I was tempted to replace some items with others that I felt more representative, but then I realised that I would be incurring the same error: the choice then becoming merely a matter of personal perception, as if my view were any better than the average Brazilian's. So instead I propose this paragraph be trimmed, excluding the specific mentions to specific dietary components. Am willing to do it myself if no one opposes after a reasonable amount of time. SrAtoz (talk) 04:37, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

[[:Category question
Hi or any. In the History section there is this block that starts with [[: Category

"quote The remains of cold joints, nicely garnished, a few sweets, or a little hashed meat, poultry or game, are the usual articles placed on the table for luncheon, with bread and cheese, biscuits, butter, etc. If a substantial meal is desired, rump-steaks or mutton chops may be served, as also veal cutlets, kidneys... In families where there is a nursery, the mistress of the house often partakes of the meal with the children, and makes it her luncheon. In the summer, a few dishes of fresh fruit should be added to the luncheon, or, instead of this, a compote of fruit or fruit tart, or pudding."

What is the function of this cruft? Certainly that long quote is not actually a category. Ping me back. Cheers! 02:57, 15 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Short response: I corrected the formatting at the lead of the quote, to "{{cquote|" . North America{{sup| 1000 }} 03:00, 15 March 2016 (UTC)
 * I caught the issue right after I asked but you fixed it before I got to it. However, I changed it to a regular quote. Cheers!  03:06, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

Images for the article
Most of the images are of typical lunch food. There are only two images of people actually eating lunch, and one of those is rather old and the other is rather formal. I'm not suggesting removing those, but I think it would be nice to have a few images of people actually eating lunch from various cultures. To me, lunch is not only the food that is eaten but also the social aspect. – Corinne (talk) 03:45, 15 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Hi, and any . I agree and to that end incorporating an image and description of a picnic lunch would be good but I am having trouble finding any references relating to picnic lunches to build the content from. All I find are recipes or blog posts. As far as I know picnics are always a lunchtime affair. Cheers! PS: Corinne, can you please copy-edit the gig I posted on the three-martini lunch in the North America section? It is rough.   08:31, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

British Lunch
How come other countries get local dishes as the photo-example but we get Americanized fast food?

Could someone please alter the photo and caption (I don't know how) to show something more suited to the UK; such as ploughmans, a sandwich, beans on toast, etc. LeapUK (talk) 09:02, 1 July 2017 (UTC)

"Almuerzo" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Almuerzo. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Pam D  11:57, 24 February 2020 (UTC)