Forum: Author Hangout

By and large, the Supper/Dinner distinction is a northerner/southerner, but with a fair amount of crossover based on where the family was originally from. Then there's "bunch", typically served on Sunday, when you sleep later—or after church—and then go to eat, and the name is a combination of, clearly, "breakfast" and "lunch", usually eaten around 10:30, halfway between 8a.m. and 12p.m. And in many cities, it's the perfect opportunity to visit the popular jazz clubs where the lighter combination fits the mostly casual conversation, snacking public engagement. Yet they're all very American.

By and large, the Supper/Dinner distinction is a northerner/southerner, but with a fair amount of crossover based on where the family was originally from.

As a northerner(Wisconsin) who's family uses both, here is the distinction/overlap as I understand it.

Dinner is the largest meal of the day that a family eats together.

Supper is the evening meal.

The shift of Dinner from a mid day meal (lunch) to the evening meal was the result of industrialization. With the amount of time kids spent in school increasing and most adults working out side the home, families no longer eat lunch together.

As to a northern/southern difference in dinner/supper, the northern US industrialized earlier and more extensively.

In one article I read, I don't recall which, it said that in England afternoon tea starts at 4:00 for the lower social class and at 5:00, or later, for the upper class

Kind of makes sense, as the lower classes are likely serving tea to the upper class members at 5. So they either have it beforehand or wait until later.

What's more, in the U.S.'s deep-South states, they drink "Sweet Tea", as in sickly sweet, often loaded with more sugar than a soft drink, and they never drink hot tea. What's more, they drink their sweet teas nearly all day long, like the rest of the world drinks water. And they wonder why their diabetes incident rates are SO high.

But if you drink your sweet tea whilst eating some hot boiled peanuts, the sugar in the tea is blotted up and doesn't count.

Also, for you Yankees, if you're in the South and order tea, it's going to be sweet tea. Unsweetened tea must be specified, and then the waitresses will mock you by saying "Bless your heart."

Yep, "Bless your heart," with a distinct "you imbecile" emphasis. Generally, the Deep South has never forgiven their loss during the our Civil War, resenting the Northerners' Industrial focus, generally a more productive use of land than faming offered in the olden days—thus requiring large numbers of slaves or indentured servants to sustain.

Also, for you Yankees, if you're in the South and order tea, it's going to be sweet tea. Unsweetened tea must be specified, and then the waitresses will mock you by saying "Bless your heart."

I don't know for sure but I do believe that people in the South consider Sweet Tea with less than 1 inch (2.5cm) of undissolved sugar in the bottom of the serving pitcher even after stirring as unsweetened.

What's more, in the U.S.'s deep-South states, they drink "Sweet Tea", as in sickly sweet, often loaded with more sugar than a soft drink, and they never drink hot tea.

I have seen sweet tea described as sugar with a few tea spoons of tea added to it. :)

I found that when driving semi through the 70's, 80's and 90's, generally the Atlantic coast states, VA, NC, SC, & GA, served unsweetened tea and the Gulf coast states, FL, AL, MS, LA, AR, & TX, served sweet tea unless you asked for unsweet. KY, TN, & OK was anyone's guess what you would get. Anything north & west of those states used to serve just unsweetened tea. New England gave you hot tea unless you specified iced. Now a days, you can get sweet tea all the way to the Canadian border.

Also, in those Gulf coast states, if you asked for a Coke, you were asked, "What flavor?" Coke was the universal name for soda pop. That included 7Up, NeHi, & Dr Pepper and a bunch of local brands.

Also, in those Gulf coast states, if you asked for a Coke, you were asked, "What flavor?" Coke was the universal name for soda pop. That included 7Up, NeHi, & Dr Pepper and a bunch of local brands.

I ran into that in the Army, (77 to 81)
Confusing as all get-out, the first few times.

Yep, "Supper" is pretty limited to the Deep South or the people who grew up there before moving, so the term is rarely heard in the northeast, midwest or Southern California. The other portions of the western states are mostly less populated and thus fairly consistently conservative, so they're similar to the Deep-Southern states with some mostly minor variations. Whereas cities tend to be pretty universally more liberal, as most tend to move away once the start focusing on raising families

Mainly raise them there, but again, their kids tend to head wherever they want, eagerly seeking independence and their own versions of personal freedom.

Thus I'd expect the use of "Supper" to be in those more conservative, less economically robust regions. Though again, most 'liberal' cities tend to be surrounded to more-financially viable conservation regions, so you get some interesting mixtures in close proximities.

35-50 years ago, I heard supper used extensively all around rural Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Iowa. Then think about Chicago and NYC having Supper Clubs.

35-50 years ago, I heard supper used extensively all around rural Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Iowa. Then think about Chicago and NYC having Supper Clubs.

Also in Wisconsin.

Usually, the use of two duplicate consonants is based on the sound with local usage variations, where the usage is different between American, British and other regional English variants.

Typically, a "diner" is one where they serve fairly common fair, most often the older Trailer-style types, where you can either sit at a table or at the main counter so you can either take your time or simply 'dine and dash'.

However I have no clue whether those old-style diners ever existed anywhere other than the U.S., as I never encountered any in my European travels. So I have no idea whether is was the result of the cost of shipping them or not having access the same manufacturing facilities. Most European areas tend towards small, comfortable restaurants, usually where they serve much better food.

In Soviet areas you would have found "eateries" I would tend to compare to... sort of school cafeterias made for general public but may be way off mark on that. Those, typically you would get *very* limited choices of questionable quality for dirt cheap prices (and/or some kind of "talons" -- food stamps issued by employer or institution in control off or contract with the eatery). The quality of the food coul vary wildly, not just by one eatery to the next, but even different days of the same. While as a rule the food would be still prepared or at least finished on premises by the personal at hand (sometimes of questionable skills at that) those were the closest you could get to commercially used pre-fabricated food in those areas. You would also get bare aluminum utensils that felt permanently dirty, often deformed.

Yep, one refers to an individual while the other refers to a physical structure. Thus one's a descriptive noun while the other is a plain noun.