Sunday, June 16, 2013

supper or dinner?

When you were a child did you hear your mother call out, dinner is ready or did she call out supper is ready.
Truth is we didn't have to be called to the evening meal. We were always at the table hungry as wild dogs waiting for mama to get the food on the table but  if we mentioned the evening meal it was always supper time in our house.
Why did we say supper and others say dinner for the evening meal?
Having read on the computer the reasoning of others this is what I decided , people who live in the south and on the farm call the evening meal supper.
The people who call it dinner tend to be from a city life or the evening meal is their largest hence dinner. the middle of the day meal is usually called lunch by the city crowd.
I also read the word supper comes from to sup as to sup from a cup so whether it was supper time or dinner time  it was usual eaten around the table in your house as the noon meal might be taken from a dinner pail or from a snack shop .
Remember red Foley sang it supper time not dinner time.
When I was but a boy in days of childhood
I used to play 'til evening shadows come;
Then, winding down an old familiar pathway
I heard my mother call at set of sun:

CHORUS: Come home, come home, it's suppertime--
The shadows lengthen fast--
Come home, come home, it's suppertime--
We're going home at last.

5 comments:

Galla Creek said...

Our biggest meal was dinner when Dad farmed and supper when he worked out for wages.

marlu said...

Dinner was at noon - the big meal. Supper was in the evening.
This can cause confusion when you tell a grandmother you will bring her dinner on Thanksgiving to the nursing home. She waited till four and told the nurses she was pretty hungry. The turkey dinner arrived about 4:30. Oops!

Sister--Helen said...

well imagine that at my home when I was a kid we always called it supper too....imagine that

Unknown said...

It was always supper at my house and that is what my kids grew up with

Donna. W said...

Yes, as I'm sure you noticed, our biggest meal is dinner at noon. Evening meal is supper. You're right, it's a country thing.