Mealtimes; researched as quoted by Perigrin Took: "What about elevenses? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn't he?"
Breakfast; (noun) Mid 15th century, the (verb) is recorded from 1670's. A thing to note is that words for breakfast tend to, over time, shift to meaning lunch, as in; Spainish "almuerzo" for "lunch" but formerly and still locally. The Latin "admorsus"; the past prinicple of "admordere" meaning "to bite into". The French"dejeuner" originally "breakfast" but turns to "lunch". Both are from the Latin "disieiunare" for "to breakfast", German "fruhstich" is from Middle High German of "vruostucke"
literally meaning "early bit", whereas Old English had "morgenmete" meaning "the morning meal".
Brunch; 1896, British Student slang as a merger of breakfast and lunch.
Elvensies; (noun) 1860-65, Doubly plurised form of elven, perhaps as an ellipsis of elven hours. British meaning of "A light snack."
Luncheon; (noun) 1650, meaning "thick piece, hunk" of uncertain origin, perhaps northern English. By 1580's it is probably influenced by the Spainish "lonja" meaning "a slice", which could have been blended with "nuncheon", taken from "non" for "noon".
Lunch; (noun) 1786, "a midday repast", shortened from "luncheon." By 1706 "lunching" is spelt as "luncheon" commonly. Old English word "normate", meaning afternoon meal, literally noon-meat. (verb); meaning "to take lunch." Although in Webster's, the definition of lunch is "a large piece of food", this is in late 1817. "Out to lunch" used as slang for "being insane, stupid or clueless" was first recorded in 1955.
Nuncheon; (noun) mid 14th century, where the original meaning was a "slight refeshment" taken in the afternoon. Made up of "none" for noon and "shench" meaning draught or cup in Old English, which is related to "sencan" meaning "to pour out".
Afternoon;(noun) C.1300, (After + Noon) 15.c - 16.c the form was "at afternoon", 16. c onwards it was "in the afternoon". However in mid 14.c Middle English has "aftermete", meaning "afternoon, part of the day following the noon meal".
Dinner; (noun) 1300, from Old French "disner" for, which originally started off as "breakfast" but at the time meant "to dine". The shift from midday to evening began with the fashionable classes. The use of "din-din", a childish version for dinner, came around 1905.
Supper; (noun), late 13.c, meaning "the last meal of the day", Old French "super", meaning "to eat the evening meal", although is German in origin, a late meal, after dinner, which it is less formal than lunch.
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