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A comment on Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea. Parent comment

Re:Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two... by torstenvl on Saturday January 13, 2018 @02:05AM (#16138594)
In standard American English, dinner always refers to the main meal of the day. In traditional agrarian contexts, the meals were breakfast, dinner, and a light later meal called supper. Supper is related to the word soup and is therefore similar in connotation to the North English/Scottish use of tea to refer to a later light meal by the name of one of its (potential) components.

The shift over time from breakfast, dinner, and supper to breakfast, lunch, and dinner primarily reflects changing socioeconomic realities rather than some fundamental lexical shift.

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Re:Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two... by jessaustin on Saturday January 13, 2018 @12:13PM (#16140273)
Fairly well-off family in the Ozarks, USA. We only say "dinner" when it's a special occasion and it isn't in the morning. For normal meals it's breakfast, lunch, supper. Most of my classmates in elementary school (many of whom had not enjoyed those "changing socioeconomic realities") were the same.
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Re:Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two... by torstenvl on Saturday January 13, 2018 @02:11PM (#16140788)
I feel like you're conflating "traditional agrarian" with "rural." I also feel like you're conflating "changing socioeconomic realities" with "people getting rich or well-off."

Was your elementary school in a one-room schoolhouse? Did most people go home for the mid-day meal? Was school in session through the summer and winter with breaks for the planting season and the harvest? Did most people stop going after 6th, 7th, or 8th grade? If not, then I feel like your post may be non-responsive to mine.

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Re:Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two... by jessaustin on Saturday January 13, 2018 @06:10PM (#16141897)
Yes I probably misunderstood you, because I have no idea what you meant by "standard American English". I'm an American and I speak English, and my rural neighbors are the same, so I thought I would report my observations. Around here we rarely use the word "dinner" for meals eaten in one's own home.
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