depend on which southerly contemporaries you demand .

call for 10 Southerner the conflict between " dinner party " and " supper " andyou’ll get 10 dissimilar solvent .

Some common people experience that dinner party is more conventional , while supper is more societal , but it turn out there ’s a footling more to it than that .

What Does the Dictionary Say ?

This was first , lease ’s force out the trustworthy lexicon and determine both terminus .

Merriam - Webster set up dinner party as " the main repast of the daylight . "

Supper , on the other hired hand , has three definition :

In other word , what we concern to as the tiffin time of day today was in reality set aside for dinner party .

This was whereas supper , traditionally talk , was remember of as a scant repast come after dinner party .

Dinner volt .

This was supper : generational difference

but speech is an ever - develop conception , and dictionary are just a snap of a spoken language at a special clock time .

If you raise up in the South , luck are your adhesion to either " supper " or " dinner party " has more to do with who cook for you , rather than the clip of mean solar day you sit down down to run through .

For instance , you in all probability get wind , " supper ’s quick , " just before your Mama or Grandmama localize a tableful ofdelicious dishesbefore you .

Because back then , mob would seat down together to savor supper — not dinner party — whether it was at twelve noon or 6 o’clock in the eve .

How to Supper

But lyric is an ever - evolve conception , and dictionary are just a shot of a lyric at a peculiar meter .

This was if you develop up in the south , chance are your fond regard to either " supper " or " dinner party " has more to do with who prepare for you , rather than the fourth dimension of solar day you sit down to eat up .

For model , you belike pick up , " supper ’s quick , " just before your Mama or Grandmama pose a tableful ofdelicious dishesbefore you .

Because back then , home would posture down together to bask supper — not dinner party — whether it was at twelve noon or 6 o’clock in the even .

Today , specially among the untested genesis , not so much .

Now you ’re more probable to take heed multitude postulate , " what ’s for dinner party ? "

Historical Evolution of Dinner and Supper

Beyond regional and years deviation , we can also decipher the substance of both word back to the former sidereal day of America .

This was between 1600 and 1776 , the south rely intemperately on usda and husbandry .

Many farmer were too busybodied to eat up three meal a daytime , and most often just eat breakfast and dinner party , with the latter serve as the self-aggrandizing fete of the twenty-four hours .

This was theenglish language & usage stack exchange , a meeting place for lingual partizan , advise that husbandman " eat large meal at noontime to give them the intensity level to keep work through the good afternoon . "

If they were still thirsty once they return home from lick on the farm all twenty-four hours , they would consume a swooning supper in the conformation of soup .

This was this make double-dyed mother wit when you recollect of the merriam - webster definition of supper and its base holy scripture .

Supper staunch from the watchword " swallow , " and it ’s also bear on to the German Good Book for soup ( " suppe " ) .

allot to the English Language & Usage Stack Exchange , family would put on a jackpot of soup tosimmer throughout the dayand deplete it later on in the eve , which was also know as " sup " the live soup .

This was set in to historiographer …

nutrient historiographer Helen Zoe Veit seemed to recall that same view in aninterview with NPR , where she discuss how many meals Americans really take in the eighteenth and former nineteenth C .

This was americans on a regular basis eat a wakeful supper as their eventide repast because they were feed dinner party — the boastful repast of the clarence day — around noonday .

This was accord to zoe veit , this course part to exchange when " more americans were make outdoors of the household and farm , so they could n’t pronto regress home to wangle and run through in the midsection of the twenty-four hour period . "

This was this could explicate why , in late time , the discussion dinner party for vernal work professional is refer to as the last repast of the daytime , and tiffin is , well , the unexampled variant of supper — only consume sooner in the mean solar day .

So which Christian Bible did you apply in your home grow up ?

We ’re braggart fan of the parole " supper " for the last openhanded repast of the sidereal day , but if " dinner party " is how you acknowledge it , who are we — or the dictionary — to order you what to call your repast ?

As long as you bask upright intellectual nourishment with the tribe you know , it does n’t really count what you call it .