On 2 October 2011 01:44, Lisi <lisi.re...@gmail.com> wrote: > I just asked my granddaughter what meal she would mean by tea and she > said "What meal? There isn't a meal called tea." So it hasn't yet changed > and is still used as I have described above. > > Sorry - language fascinates me! >
And me. Down here in Devon "Tea" as a meal is as you say, with such food as bread and butter, scones and cream, sandwiches etc.. "High tea", on the other hand consists of a hot course, but of a lesser quantity than a dinner or a supper meal. Perhaps soup, baked beans or sardines on toast, or even ham and eggs. I remember fondly high tea with my great aunt with fresh cod roe on toast..... It tended to be a class division distinction- no doubt generations old- to a time when candles where expensive, and so the poorer people would eat their main meal (dinner) at midday and take their post meridian meal in daylight, but the better off would have dinner by candlelight. These latter would probably have had tea and perhaps toast or crumpets mid to late afternoon. As a child I could eat a great deal of "tea" with scones, strawberry jam and clotted cream, and still have a hearty appetite for supper or dinner later. Now I think that that would leave me sated to the rest of the day! Another interesting thing (at least to me) is the distinction between "dinner" and "supper". Does one dine or sup in the evening (I am assuming that no one on the list would have "dinner" mid-day!). In my experience it would seem that the usage depends on the formality of the occasion, with dinner being the more formal. When receiving an invitation to supper from some friends with whom we had dined previously (which had been black tie) I asked my hostess the difference. Her reply was that dining was formal, and taken in the dining room, but that supper was very informal and eaten around their large kitchen table. Language, culture- fascinating! Terence -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/cafg91epghpq45nqwr5khgilhekxmfnv77mv8dwf_ayggrro...@mail.gmail.com
