Whadja call it?
 

The morning meal is breakfast. I think we can all agree on that. Next is lunch and then what??? Supper? Dinner?

Personally, I like to follow the ancient "Way of the Hobbit" when wondering what meal is appropriate (breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, suppper, etc) but I've noticed that this is sometimes viewed with either suspicion or outright humourless bashing by the EverPresent WorkOut Nazi. (With comments about my weight, diet attempts, etc.) But, this isn't about me. It's about YOU and what do you call your evening meal? And what do you carry your home-made noon meal in? A bag, a sack or (shudder) a bucket? Don't tell me you're one of those with the high falutin' gore-tex lunch cozy. I'll laugh in your face.

And, what must this vague and nebulous evening meal consist of? I like to think microwave popcorn is fine but others, notably my fourteen year-old son, feel otherwise.
What say you?

My lunch bag is insulated ripstop nylon in camo print with dayglow orange trim, attached compass and fashion carabiner. Don't fuck with me.
We have dinner in the evenings, but my relatives who are still on the farm have dinner at lunchtime and then supper at night.

Dinner, for me, although technically, since I have it approximately during the middle of my shift at work, it's lunch. It's also technically lunch given that it's my second meal of the day. The meal after breakfast is lunch, and so that establishes it further. Also, I carry it in a lunch bag, not a dinner bag, so again, the conclusion is logically lunch.

Maybe we should settle on 'evening meal' and leave it at that?

I remember hearing a rule that the largest meal of the day is "dinner", so you can have "breakfast, dinner, and supper" or "breakfast, lunch and dinner".

Hereabouts we use "breakfast, lunch, and dinner." However, growing up in North Carolina, it was "breakfast, dinner, and supper."

I've almost always used "dinner." And of the four places I've lived in my lifetime, I can't recall it being called anything else as a whole. It's usually the last and biggest meal of my day, though I sometimes consume bigger breakfasts than dinners.

If I take my lunch, I put it in a container or foil, then throw it in my bookbag or briefcase.

Growing up it was breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Moving to a more rural locale it is now Breakfast, dinner and supper.
The mnemonic is "last" supper. In the morning you break your night's "fast". Lunch and dinner have to slug it out for third place.

And on the jobsite 10:00 am is "coffee break"

This is helpful with nomencalture, but it conflicts with the wisdom of the Iowa breakfast study, and my local shaman who councils:

"Eat breakfast like a king, lunch/dinner like a prince, and supper like a pauper"

This is supposedly the key to health, longevity, and your widest dreams coming true

It's always been lunch then dinner for me. But my husband uses dinner and supper interchangeably, about half-and-half. Drives me nuts. Supper is unbearably rural to my ears.

In 70s Britain it was Breakfast, Dinner, and Tea.

in the Marines we called it Chow ,
Morning chow = breakfast
Noon chow = lunch
Evening chow = dinner

And what's wrong with rural, snob. :p

Breakfast, dinner and supper in the country, with dinner being the largest meal.
Breakfast, lunch and supper, now.

am laughing in jinx face!

Where I grew up in North Carolina, and by family origin, in Richmond VA, it was called breakfast, lunch, and dinner. However, if we visited people who lived in the rural farming areas, they called it breakfast, dinner, and supper. It seems to have something to do with when your LARGEST meal was taken; for us the heaviest meal was at night, but in the country it was after noon so you could get back to the heavy work after you were well nourished.

It still is in quite a few places. My Mum considered a cold meal at midday to be Lunch and a hot meal at midday to be Dinner. Any meal served at the dining table (as opposed to the kitchen) was also Dinner.

If Tea isn't being used interchangeably with Dinner, then it usually refers to a mostly cold meal where the food is prepared for you, but left on the table so that you can help yourself. We always had a huge tea on Saturday nights with sandwiches, cake, pickles, cheese, crackers - and just about anything we found in the fridge.

When I was growing up Supper was anything eaten after about 18.00 - a bag of crisps & a glass of Coke was our weekend supper and was considered a treat (teeth-conscious parents, not abjectly poor). But if my parents got a take-away as a treat for themselves it was also supper, just because of the time they ate it.

I now eat dinner at night, and not as much of it as I'd like. I miss my Saturday teas.

Hey bitch, cut me a break, its a hand-me-down from my 7 year old! I knew I should have bought that bad ass Power Rangers one I had my eye on...