Supper or Tea or Dinner?

I’m a southerner so it’s lunch and dinner. And yet, why at school did we call the staff dinner ladies?!

Breakfast
Lunch
Tea (vicar's sandwiches & cake)
Dinner
Or:
Brunch
High Tea
Supper

I like the sound of all of them Marmight ?

Phoenix, we have a living room with a settee, in our other house it was the front room, but in this house it`s at the back.

When I was young, in working class London, we have breakfast, dinner and tea. Now it's Breakfast, lunch and dinner. When it changed? Not a clue. Supper? Nah, that's just for posh people innit?

Just occurred to me that in all the years we've been married, I refer to the evening meal as tea, and my husband calls it dinner. Only just occurred to me upon reading this thread.
We're both southerners. OH grew up in an upper middle class home, whereas was from the good old aspiring working class
And it's also made me recall that OH's parents refer to an evening meal at home as supper but OH has never said that.
Well it seems I cook tea for when OH returns from work 7.00p.m-ish and we then eat dinner

Husband has dinner at 1230 I have lunch . Sometimes we have main meal tea between 5 and 7 most often main meal dinner around 8 Supper is never a meal mearly a pre bed snack here

I call it 'supper' and it is about 6.30 pm.

Glasgow here. It used to be breakfast, dinner, tea then supper. The main meal was in the middle of the day and the menfolk would come home for their dinner. Over time the average working man moved farther from their work so the main meal moved to evening.

I remember a typical breakfast with porridge, or cornflakes or something cooked liked scrambled egg on toast for a weekday. Full Scottish breakfast at the weekend.

Midday dinner might be home made soup followed by steak pie, potatoes and veg. and tea something like pork chops and chips followed by pudding.

Supper was a little something to ward off nighttime starvation such as tea with fruit loaf or cheese and oatcakes.

Morning coffee with home made cake or biscuits was the exception rather than the rule, as was afternoon tea with sandwiches, scones and cakes. They were reserved for when we had guests.

High tea was a special treat in which we ate out before going to the circus or the theatre, perhaps one or twice a year. I remember lemon sole, chips and peas served with real lemon wedges and bread and butter followed by cakes. I thought eating out the height of sophistication.

Reading that I do wonder why we were able to say so slim. Portion sizes were small though. One pound of meat for four, and of course we didn't have a car so walked a lot.

I grew up with breakfast, dinner, tea and supper, the latter being a couple of biscuits or bowl of cereal before bed.

Not once in my childhood did I hear the cry of "come in for your lunch" when it was time for friends to stop playing and head home to eat.
Nowadays, it is all very mixed up.

I've lived 'darn sarf' (well, sort of - just south of the Watford Gap, anyway) for over 30 years now, where most people nowadays seem to have lunch and dinner.
Gradually, I've gone over to saying 'lunch', but it still really grates on me to say 'dinner' instead of tea, so only do it occasionally, if I think the listener might get confused otherwise. My posher grandchildren soon got used to the fact that what they call dinner is called tea at Grandma's. We have a laugh about it sometimes ☺
I don't mind what words people use for these meals, as long as they don't sneer at other people's versions, as if their own preferences are somehow the only 'correct' ones!

We have our dinner at 7.30pm, sometimes 7pm. Have never called it tea as that beverage is not involved. (I drink tea at 3pm or 4pm.)

Lunch (cold/sandwiches, salad) is anytime between 12 and 3.00, 4.15 is our 'quarter to five' cup of tea and piece of fruit, and tea or 'hot' is anytime between 7.00 and 10.00pm, depending of either of us have had an evening event

I must add that we talk about dinner time, then have lunch!!!!!!

Esspee, interesting, so two cooked meals a day and small portions.
When I was growing up one pound of meat was for 4 of us, it seems to make sense. Smaller meals.
I have an abiding memory of Scottish High Tea, the table all set, side plates, butter knives, elbows off the table.... a bygone age.

I have lived 'south of the Watford Gap' for about 70 years and I haven't talked about 'dinner' for any meal except a formal meal with all the trimmings (nice china etc, guests) and often, not even then, certainly since I married (1968) and probably earlier and I am not sure I have heard many other people use the term now.

I think the change is tied into more informal eating and the growth of the big kitchen/family room and the end of the formal dining room.

Lily65, I too grew up with the 1lb of meat for 4 people, but, without any conscious intention, for us it has now fallen to about 2 oz. We prefer casseroles and stews to lumps of meat (roasts, steaks) and, as I have gradually increased the quantities of vegetables in casseroles and stews and more clearly portion controlled, so the number of portions in a casserole has increased from 4 to 8.

I do still think it’s tied to class as further up the country you go you had a higher percentage of manual workers and ‘darn sarth’ much more business and white collar workers
Can you imagine a pitman having ‘lunch’ or a banker having ‘dinner’ midday with their colleagues in the local bistro ?
As the generations have changed the country tends to be more trendy and follow the capital
I bet if you had a poll it would come out as a north south divide with breakfast dinner tea and supper having been used central and upwards and breakfast lunch and dinner /supper being London and south
What was Wales, Cornwall west etc anyone from there?
I still think of breakfast dinner and tea but go out to lunch with my friends so I m a mixed up kid
Never heard of High tea until this new trend couple of years back

High tea goes back a long way. It is mentioned in a lot of literature. Originally it was a tea with lots of extras eaten on a Sunday. Could be cooked food (as mentioned further up the thread) but also tinned salmon and other fancy comestibles.

Breakfast. 7.30ish, porridge
Coffee with biscuit/cake 11am ish,
Lunch, soup/sandwich 1pm ish,
Cup of tea (cake if you’ve got a friend visiting) you always ask if it’s,informal. 3pm ish,
Dinner 7pm ish, meat/fish, potato and loads of veg.
Some fruit, yogurt later if peckish before bed.

We have a light supper if we’ve been out to lunch or had a big meal instead of lunch for whatever reason.

Depends. Either very late afternoon tea, or an early dinner :-)

DH and I have really enjoyed reading this thread. I find it fascinating, but DH who would eat gravy on anything at any time went wild with the term "Gravy Dinner ". He thinks he has the GN seal of approval to have that meal from now on.