Dinner

Part of a series on
Meals
Meals
Suhur Breakfast Second breakfast Elevenses Brunch Lunch Tea Merienda Tiffin Dinner Supper Iftar Siu yeh Snack Combination meal Kids' meal Value meal
Components and courses
Full-course dinner Tasting menu Amuse-bouche Hors d'oeuvre Soup Entrée Roast Main course Salad Side dish Entremets Dessert Savoury Meal preparation
Related concepts
À la carte Banquet Buffet Cuisine list Drink Eating Food Grazing History of breakfast Kamayan Table d'hôte Table manners Table setting
v t e

Dinner usually refers to what is in many Western cultures the biggest and most formal meal of the day. Historically, the largest meal used to be eaten around midday, and called dinner.^[1] Especially among the elite, it gradually migrated to later in the day over the 16th to 19th centuries.^[2] The word has different meanings depending on culture, and may mean a meal of any size eaten at any time of day.^[3] In particular, it is still sometimes used for a meal at noon or in the early afternoon on special occasions, such as a Christmas dinner.^[2] In hot climates, the main meal is more likely to be eaten in the evening, after the temperature has fallen.

Etymology

The word is from the Old French (c. 1300) disner, meaning "dine", from the stem of Gallo-Romance desjunare ("to break one's fast"), from Latin dis- (which indicates the opposite of an action) + Late Latin ieiunare ("to fast"), from Latin ieiunus ("fasting, hungry").^[4][5] The Romanian word dejun and the French déjeuner retain this etymology and to some extent the meaning (whereas the Spanish word desayuno and Portuguese desjejum are related but are exclusively used for breakfast). Eventually, the term shifted to referring to the heavy main meal of the day, even if it had been preceded by a breakfast meal (or even both breakfast and lunch).

Time of day

Ancient

Reflecting the typical custom of the 17th century,

The satirical novel Living for Appearances (1855) by Henry Mayhew and his brother Augustus begins with the views of the hero on the matter. He dines at 7:00 pm, and often complains of "the disgusting and tradesman-like custom of early dining", say at 2:00 pm. The "Royal hour" he regards as 8:00 pm, but he does not aspire to that. He tells people "Tell me when you dine, and I will tell you what you are".^[11]

Modern

In many modern usages, the term dinner refers to the evening meal, which is now typically the largest meal of the day in most Western cultures. When this meaning is used, the preceding meals are usually referred to as breakfast, lunch and perhaps a tea.^[2][12] Supper is now often an alternative term for dinner; originally this was always a later secondary evening meal, after an early dinner.

The divide between different meanings of "dinner" is not cut-and-dried based on either geography or socioeconomic class. The term for the midday meal is most commonly used by working-class people, especially in the English Midlands, North of England and the central belt of Scotland.

Dinner time in the United States peaks at 6:19 p.m., according to an American Time Use Survey analysis, with most households eating dinner between 5:07 p.m. and 8:19 p.m. According to the data from 2018 to 2022, the states that ate the earliest were Pennsylvania (5:37 p.m. peak) and Maine (5:40 p.m. peak), while the states that ate the latest were Texas and Mississippi (both a 7:02 p.m. peak) and Washington, D.C., which ate at 7:10 p.m. peak.^[13]

United Kingdom

A survey by Jacob's Creek, an Australian winemaker, found the average evening meal time in the U.K. to be 7:47pm.^[14]

Parties

A dinner party is a social gathering at which people congregate to eat dinner.

1. It requires that the participants dress in semi-formal (black-tie) or formal (white tie) evening attire. ^[15]
   • Most commonly, guests will be expected to dress in semi-formal/black-tie attire. The men wear tuxedos and women wear cocktail dresses, evening gowns, and/or le smoking (the womens tuxedo).
   • The most formal of dinner events will require guests to dress in formal/white-tie attire. The men wear a full evening-dress ensemble (white-tie and tailcoat), and women wear evening gowns and/or ball gowns.
2. A commitment to a style of formal dinner service.^{[18][19][20][21]}
   • Service rendered in the Russian style, or service à la russe. A manner of dining where each course is brought to the table sequentially, and the food portioned on individual plates by the waiter. The Russian style of service is usually perceived to be a more formal method.
   • Service rendered in the French style, or service à la française. Traditionally, it can be defined as a manner of service that is rendered via serving various dishes of the meal, all at the same time in an impressive display, and the guests serve themselves from the serving dishes - similar to that of a buffet. However, French style service can be rendered in a variety of methods/sub-styles.
     • Guéridon service, also known as "tableside service" or "from the cart," is a relative blend of the French and Russian styles, where every dish is portioned by a waiter at the tableside. It involves the cooking or finishing of foods by a waiter (or maître d'hôtel/captain) at the diner's table, typically from a special serving cart called a guéridon trolley. Gueridon service offers a higher style of service to the guest.
     • Other styles include banquet, buffet, and assisted buffet.
   • Service rendered in the English style, or service à l’anglaise, is usually viewed as a slightly trimmed down version of Russian style service, but has a strong emphasis on the professionalism of the servicing personnel. The English style of service is also known as "butler service."
3. An appropriately formal setting/dining room.
4. There are multiple courses served.
5. There is a seating protocol.

See also

• Early bird dinner
• Formal hall
• Snack
• Supper
• Tea

References

Bibliography

• Draznin, Y. (2001). Victorian London's Middle-class Housewife: What She Did All Day. ABC-Clio ebook. Greenwood Press.
  ISBN 978-0-313-31399-8
  .
• Edwards, C. (2007). Death in Ancient Rome. Yale University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-300-11208-5
  .
• ISBN 0007131895
• McMillan, Sherrie (2001). "What time is dinner?". History Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 December 2017. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
• ISBN 0224061380

Further reading

• Nunn, J.J. (1872). Mrs. Montague Jones' dinner party: or, Reminiscences of Cheltenham life and manners. J.C. Hotten.
• Inness, S.A. (2001). Dinner Roles: American Women and Culinary Culture. NONE Series. University of Iowa Press.
  ISBN 978-1-58729-332-0
  .
• Meiselman, H.L. (2009). Meals in Science and Practice: Interdisciplinary Research and Business Applications. Woodhead Publishing Series in Food Science, Technology and Nutrition. Elsevier Science. pp. 97–98.
  ISBN 978-1-84569-571-2
  .

Gallery

• 
  Casual dinner in western restaurant
• 
  Thanksgiving dinner
• 
  Christmas dinner
• 
  A formal American dinner setting
• 
  An airline dinner meal
• 
  Japanese dinner
• 
  Dinner nouvelle cuisine
• 
  Cassoulet for German dinner
• 
  Beef steak at a steakhouse
• 
  A dinner in space aboard the ISS during STS-129

External links

Look up dinner in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Dinner.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dinners.

• "Dinner" definition Archived 2008-12-22 at the Wayback Machine from Cambridge.org
• Wikibooks Cookbook
• BBC article on history of dinner