59 Comments
Same in Danish and Swedish! It's just how the meals have changed due to the Industrial Revolution and what not. Like how in English "dinner" used to be the meal at around noon. Now it's around 5pm-10pm depending on where you live.
Theres a lot of confusion in the midwest when people say dinner. If someone plans dinner with me, I have to ask "dinner lunch or dinner supper". May be a regional thing
As SarahT14 said, in my region, dinner still means lunch, we call the evening meal (generally any time between 5 and 9pm) tea! Sensible, eh?!
Where I live it's breakfast in the morning, dinner in the afternoon and tea in the evening :)
At least "dinner" doesn't literally mean "midday"... though it appears that "dinner" originally meant "breakfast". :-)
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Same in german, btw. "Mittag" is a short version of "Mittagessen" (literally "mid day meal").
Yes but Mittagessen means lunch (dinner/supper is said Abendessen (literally evening meal))
My spouse and I spent most of our lives less than 200 miles from each other, he grew up with mid-day and evening meals both called 'dinner'. I grew up using 'lunch' and 'supper'. After many years together, we generally use 'lunch' and 'dinner'. Part of which makes linguistics interesting. :) I'm in/from northern central U.S.
Older people in Norway still eat their dinner very early! At least the ones I know :)
Well they eat dinner at 4pm normally, so it's understandable that they call it middag.
I just came back from living on a Norwegian farm. They eat dinner around 5:30pm
Well, as a native dutch speaker, I always use 'middag' (dutch) for the afternoon, and 'tussen de middag' (dutch) for noon. But that might be regional or something.
In the Netherlands "middag" is between 12.00 and 18.00, while namiddag is between ~16.00 and 18.00. Funny, in Belgium this is apparently different: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middag_%28tijd%29
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In Israel they eat dinner at 19.00~20.00. When I was in the US visiting relatives I was baffled by how early they ate it there, at around 18.00; also, they have lunch here at 1.30~3.30, but in the US around 12.00 is ‘lunchtime’. So... yeah. This is particularly baffling to me.
I'd say that lunchtime can be anywhere between 11:30 and 4:30 -- it depends how lazy you are feeling on that particular day :P
In the UK it seems like they eat dinner even earlier -- can be as early as 5PM sometimes.
So, the Swedes and Norwegians agreed that frukost/frokost is definitely breakfast. Where did the Danes get the idea that breakfast is at lunchtime? Too many late nights? :P
The French did the same as the Danes - "déjeuner" is from jeûner "to fast", i.e. to "break one's fast" (breakfast), but the continental French déjeuner at noon! I think in Canada and/or Switzerland, it's still "breakfast".
But 'breakfast' is "petit déjeuner", 'small lunch' or 'small break of fasting' I guess, so probably each time the French don't eat it's fasting for them :D
"dinner/dîner" literally means "breakfast"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dinner
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dîner
So you're right! Each time they don't eat it's fasting.
Well, my flatmates here in London call 'dinner' 'tea'. I think that levels 'middag' out. ;o)
Brazilians call breakfast "coffee". Even if you have a toast and mint tea, "coffee". "Dude I'm hungry, my coffee today was a single apple." It's all coffee.
And Japanese has morning rice, noon rice, and evening rice. (Though this depends on situation and speaker, but the words still exist.)
In Finnish the names are related to the time of the day: aamu -> aamiainen (morning -> breakfast), päivä -> päivällinen (day -> lunch), ilta -> illallinen (evening -> dinner/supper).
Wow, it would make me very sad to be promised "coffee" and then not get coffee. It's a good thing I know that, now, in case I ever go to Brazil.
Oh don't worry, we're a coffee country. About every 'café' (=morning or afternoon light meal) you'll be offered will include 'café' (=the dark caffeinated beverage), or it would be quite weird. Now if you like tea, on the other hand, you're screwed. Very hard to find good tea here; in fact the word for tea ('chá') has come to mean any herbal infusion, just to show how little Brazilians care for the tea plant.
Yes, but it can be further defined as "herbal/herb tea". Restaurants with a wide selection may ask if you want "black, green or herbal". Furthermore, in recent years, "iced tea" has become so common that when I order "tea" most of the time I am asked if I want "hot tea"; even at Chinese restaurants (where tea has always been common and plentiful). (I'm from/live in northern, central U.S.)
Some people call 'dinner' 'tea', some 'dinner' and some 'supper' here in the UK. And a few people (though not as much any more I would think) call 'lunch' 'dinner'. (See my other comment above.)
I like how the Norwegians at least make an effort to change the spelling of lunch, not like those Swedes!
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Actually, it's quite common in Norway to use the English spelling of this word too.
I have never heard of "Ofxord comma" (already googled it!). In Portuguese (at least in Brazil) the last item of an enumeration must be preceded by an "e"[and]
I wonder what the word for brunch is. (Sorry for the strange and random question)
this is very weird, because i'm dutch,and in dutch midday means afternoon, it's very confusing :P
Agreed! This whole thread has been so interesting. No wonder it takes me four hours everyday to practise 10 languages!
It's so weird to me that "middag" means dinner, because I'm Dutch and "middag" in Dutch means (after)noon.
I know right?! How can "mid-day" be dinner! (I'm German). But nevertheless I do love Norwegian.(bokmal).
Hei all native speakers norwegian: I'm very confused from all the discussion. I'm looking for a clear answer: Frokost=breakfast (=Frühstück=in the morning). Lunsj=lunch(=Mittagessen =about midday) and middag=dinner (=Abendessen=in the evening). Is that right?
Is there an alternative to 'middag'? Dinner is a confusing word to use anyway, as it means the main meal of the day, which is often a formal evening meal, but could technically be a midday meal
My answer was "Breakfast, lunch and dinner", which was accepted, but then it says "Another correct solution: Breakfast, lunch and dinner". Huh? That is exactly what I typed, letter for letter, space for space, with uppercase "B", and comma too...
I invite you to upvote the comment by Glennebanan rather than posting about the same thing again.
