Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "Nope. Every school in the country that provides meals provides "school dinners". I've never heard of one providing "school lunches"'"
And yet the midday break is the lunch break. And the time at which school dinners are eaten is referred to as lunchtime.
Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "The kids that paid have always taken their dinner money to school, never their lunch money.'"
Both terms are used. The latter is now the more common judging by my kids and their friends.
Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "I don't think it is dinner in any other country as they speak different languages so whatever the word is, "dinner" would not be it. Unless you count American "English", which I don't really, and they I think do or did have a school lunch program, but the cursed Americans are responsible for most of the abominations to the mother tongue, and this confusion is probably just one more confusion-creating example.'"
You're aware that foreign languages get translated into English, yes? Guess what the English translation for the midday meal is.
Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "The origins of "lunch" are clearly in the English invention of "luncheon", and that was traditionally a light "in-between" meal, originally taken by ladies, and certainly no sort of a main meal.'"
Words and their usage change over time. The question asked was not about the origin of the word, but about usage.
Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "A school dinner has always traditionally been a 3 course meal, certainly no less than a hot main course, and a pudding (sorry - "dessert"icon_wink.gif. If at dinnertime someone (including schoolkids) are not having dinner (eg going on a school trip) they may well take a "packed lunch". That may be like a sandwich, crisps,a biscuit or an apple, maybe a carton of juice, basically light and portable snack food. Everyone knows what (in the context of food) a "lunchbox" is.'"
Informative and yet utterly irrelevant.
Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "Schoolchildren might have dinner while at school, but once they start work, they might just have lunch ie a sandwich or a pasty or something, so it is no longer dinner, because it's not a "dinner". Certainly in Yorkshire, though, your big meal in the evening is your "tea", which is a complete change from what began life as "afternoon tea". So a typical Yorkshireman may have a breakfast early doors, and is likely to use "me dinner" interchangeably with "me lunch", but he will always be off home for 'is tea - and never off home for 'is dinner unless at dinnertime.'"
Did you miss the bit about the M62 corridor?
And outside of that corridor employees have a lunch break, which at larger companies often incorporates hot meals of more than one course.
Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "If I say I'll meet you "at dinnertime" - when would you expect me to arrive?'"
Late evening. As would my colleagues in Europe. And the USA. Granted I have no direct experience further afield.
