Talk:Supper

Misc
I'm pretty sure the Tagalog word "hapon" means "afternoon", not "noon". 198.70.193.2 (talk) 22:49, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Is the Esperanto word for "supper" really necessary? Or any of the other languages- this is an encyclopedia, not a multilingual dictionary.

I agree that the translations of the word supper are irrelevant, no other pages have that kind of thing. Hence I've deleted them. Lexy lexy 17:59, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

In Spain, supper can be as late as ten or eleven p.m., although this is partly because Spain uses a time zone that is almost two hours off true local time.

I doubt it: dinner at 10 or later was a well established custom in Spain long before the country adopted Central European Time. -- Picapica 22:39, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Am I the only one that thinks the first sentence makes no sense? How can the "last meal of the day" come "before" any other meal?

Supper is never used as a term for the evening meal anywhere in the United Kingdom. I grew up in London in the 1980s-90s, and supper was the normal term for the evening meal; indeed I rarely heard anything else. This sentence, therefore, seems misleading.

I agree. I always use the word supper for the evening meal. The differences between "dinner". "supper" and "tea" in the UK are related to area and social class - rather complicated. I've simply removed the sentence. Rueful Rabbit 11:39, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Supper is the name for the evening meal in some dialects of English - ordinarily the last meal of the day, usually the meal that comes after dinner. I'm judging by my own reaction and the previous two posters that the first line of this page is not entirely true. I've always referred to the meal of "dinner" or "tea" as supper. Suggest rewrite to be "can be either the main evening meal or a light meal after dinner" to cover both usages. Or similar. Segat1 15:43, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

Which countries?
In the US and Canada, there's pretty much no such thing as supper - by far the biggest meal of the day is dinner, which can be had as late as 7pm. By contrast, in Russia supper is eaten at 8pm or so and is a lighter affair, with the biggest meal being dinner which is eaten at around 2-3pm (lunch is not eaten).


 * Some people I know from the United States refer to the main evening meal ("dinner" or "tea") as supper, in common with the United Kingdom. -- Mal 15:38, 30 May 2007 (UTC)


 * My family comes from the upper Midwest of the U.S., and we normally call the last meal of the day "supper" (although we'd understand "dinner" to mean the same thing and use it occasionally). Food right before bed is called a "bedtime" or "nighttime snack," though I suspect this isn't particularly regional. :) Seethaki (talk) 03:19, 16 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I grew up in rural North Dakota and the last meal of the day, served between 6 and 7 p.m., has always been called supper. The noon meal is usually called both "lunch" and "dinner," though I always associated dinner with a big family meal and lunch with lighter fare. I would assume "supper" is the usual term throughout much of the Midwest/Plains states. --Bookworm857158367 (talk) 15:58, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

I've changed the end of the sentence about the geography of the evening meal being called supper from "such as Missouri and Iowa" to "such as Midwest and Plains farm states". I don't have any resources to cite other than the two above testimonies, a friend who grew up on a farm in western Illinois, and my own Nebraska farm grandparents who always served "dinner" at noon, and "supper" as the evening meal. That is different than the vocabulary of many other places which have lunch at noon and dinner around 6 pm. The farm dinner was meant to fortify laborers for the afternoon tasks, while the more urban lunch is lighter, and meant to keep one from dozing off at one's desk, which a heavier meal might effect. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Myheck (talk • contribs) 02:05, 24 March 2012 (UTC)


 * In New York (City), there seems to have been a change of usage during my lifetime. When I was a small child in the early '50's, I usually heard the evening meal referred to as "supper," though, like Seethaki, I did understand "dinner" to mean the same thing.  By the time I was ten or so, "dinner" had taken over completely.  Perhaps this was a family thing, but others I have compared notes with say the same thing.  For many years I have only heard "supper" used for the Last Supper.  What do other New Yorkers have to say about this?  Kostaki mou (talk) 04:10, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

I think that something should be mentioned about these different eating patterns. Esn 06:03, 10 January 2007 (UTC)


 * When I was a kid, my Dad and I visited farming cousins in Manitoba. What I called "Lunch" they called "Supper."  So, Breakfast, Supper and Dinner were the three meals of the day.  (They also said Grace, which was new to me.)  Has anyone else seen this use of the word "Supper" for the mid-day meal?

It says "In most parts of Canada, 'supper' and 'dinner' are considered synonyms. In some areas either term may be rarely used. It is typically served between 6pm and 8pm. The only real requirement is it must be eaten after lunch." Actually, in central Canada, "dinner" refers to the evening meal and "lunch" to the noon meal. "Supper" is almost never used. However, in Atlantic Canada, "supper" is universally the name for the evening meal, and "dinner" (and sometimes "lunch") for the noon meal. Tim from eastern Canada —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.34.225.122 (talk) 00:12, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

I see no mention that in the U.S. Deep South, supper is near-universally used to refer to the evening meal among natives. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.82.127.144 (talk) 21:38, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

Seems to me there is a lot of variation in the US, which may not be purely geographical. I grew up in Southern California and always understood "supper" to be an evening meal exclusively while "dinner" refers to the main meal if the day, which could occasionally be mid-day but unless on a weekend or holiday, usually was an evening meal. Wschart (talk) 19:32, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

The bit about "Supper is not used across Ontario" I deleted - I am born and raised Ontario (Ottawa to Toronto), with friends and family in small communities and large, from Windsor through to Peterborough, and I can tell you that "supper" is actually more common than "dinner." I don't know where people get their "facts" for Wikipedia sometimes. I have also lived in Montreal, and "Souper" is indeed common there. I haven't been East of BC or West of Manitoba, so I don't know about the Prairies. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.235.132.145 (talk) 18:34, 19 May 2013 (UTC)

In Australia, social clubs that meet in the Evening - for example Lions, Rotary, School Parents and Citizens Associations and many others tend to follow similar procedures and often advertise as part of their calendars or brochures statements such as "The meeting will commence at 7 pm, and will be followed by a light supper". The "light supper" is usually cake, biscuits(cookies) and other finger foods with tea or coffee during which members can interact more informally after the meeting. --MichaelGG (talk) 12:02, 9 October 2013 (UTC)


 * I was going to say the same thing. I went to school in Australia, and school functions in the evening sometimes provided a "supper", which was usually sandwiches and cake and that sort of thing. (I figure it helped make up for the fact that you probably wouldn't have time for a proper dinner.) That was the only time we ever used the term "supper". 24.114.228.117 (talk) 04:58, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

GOD I LOVE WIKIPEDIA
Where else can one find out where the word supper comes from! :D... Zoiros 07.05.2007 For a farmer in western Canada there are the following meals: breakfast, lunch which is a bag taken out to the field hence "bag lunch", dinner which is a meal eaten indoors at noon, and supper which is the evening meal usually around six p.m.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.142.209.23 (talk) 19:22, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Supper is always an evening meal ...
Wrong. Look it up in a dictionary, it's also the word for a midday meal. My nana used to call lunch "supper" and I looked it up because I thought she was crazy ... She was crazy, but she was right. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.172.186.128 (talk) 17:29, 20 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Are you thinking of the term "dinner"? My grandmother used to say "dinner" to mean a midday meal (whereas nowadays it's usually an evening meal). But I'm pretty sure "supper" is always in the evening, and every dictionary I look at says the same. 24.114.228.117 (talk) 05:04, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

Use of term "Folks"
There is a section that reads: "In the South, traditionally "dinner" refers to the mid-day meal, and "supper" refers to the evening meal, though folks understand that outsiders typically are referring to supper when they say dinner." Shouldn't the term "folks" be something more appropriate like "Southern people" or "they" or simply left out altogether with something like "though it is understood that outsiders..." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.217.241.235 (talk) 02:38, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Should Wikipedia include truistic statements?
In this article, we are told that a "fish supper" is normally a meal of fish and chips. Wow! I do not think many readers would have guessed that  - I bet that most of them thought that a "fish supper" was a meal of roast lamb and mint sauce! Well, I am speaking in jest, but I do this to highlight the truistic nature of the statement - do we really want to have truistic statements littering Wikipedia articles? ACEOREVIVED (talk) 20:48, 24 January 2008 (UTC)


 * There are many other meals you could have with fish as the main course of a meal. If a fish supper refers to a meal of fish and chips, as opposed to a meal of trout and asparagus, that may be sufficiently noteworthy.--RLent (talk) 22:40, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Chinese
Xiaochi includes the unsourced statement
 * Xiaochi form a large part of the traditional fourth meal of the day, the xiaoye (宵夜; "supper" or "midnight snack").

where that xiaoye link redirects to here. Which... um... peachy... But over here we have no mention of China at all, let alone the idea that it has a secret fourth meal built upon midnight streetfood nosh. (I feel like Chinese culture would gain a great deal in popularity if this became more widely known...) Could someone please

source this? include some more details over at supper? and move the Chinese characters over there per ? — Llywelyn II   02:57, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

Related to soup
The claim in the section on etymology that supper "is related to soup" does not have any citations to support it. Vorbee (talk) 14:55, 22 October 2017 (UTC)

Emily Post
Emily Post's 1945 book is cited as the basis for the Modern Usage section. I think that explains why that section seems a little... antiquated. I think there should be some kind of change here. Rlitwin (talk) 20:42, 18 November 2022 (UTC)

What's with the past tense?
The article says "supper was ..." but supper is something that I eat regularly and use the name "supper" for. If it is a meal still used in certain places should we remove the "was"? —Panamitsu (talk) 08:11, 10 March 2024 (UTC)