Combination Meals: Brunch, Linner, Dunch, and Lupper

People eat throughout the day, and the three main meals are called breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometimes people miss eating those meals at times usually designated for them. Is it still breakfast if you get out of bed at 7 a.m. and you don't eat anything until around 11 a.m.? Is it still lunch if you eat long after the middle of the day? Is it still supper if you eat earlier than 6 p.m.?

The three main meals are often combined with the meal that follows it. Do you know what those combination meals are called?

Breakfast

Breakfast is made up of two words: break and fast. You fast during the night while you sleep. You break the fast when you eat in the morning after you get up.

Breakfast is the first meal of the day, no matter what time it is eaten. However, breakfast is usually thought to mean the morning meal. A typical breakfast menu might include bacon, sausage, ham, eggs, grits, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, juice, tea, and coffee. Some restaurants serve breakfast foods all day long.

Doctors, nutritionists, and other medical professionals say breakfast is the most important meal of the day and should not be skipped.

Brunch

Brunch is a combination of two words: breakfast and lunch. It is eaten as a late breakfast combined with an early lunch. Brunch is usually eaten anytime before 2 p.m.

Most restaurants and hotels serve brunch. You can choose foods from the serve-yourself buffet or from a menu. The meal usually includes standard breakfast foods such as eggs, sausages, bacon, ham, fruits, pastries, pancakes, waffles, hot cereals, and cold cereals.

Lunch

Lunch is actually the abbreviation for luncheon. However, the word luncheon is usually reserved for a formal meal. Lunch is the second meal of the day. It is eaten around midday. Most lunch periods start at 11 a.m. and could go to 1 or 2 p.m.

Workers and school children are away from home during lunchtime. Therefore, lunch foods could be just sandwiches, fruit, and cold foods that don't have to be warmed up. For those who don't take their lunch to work or school, cafeterias are there with hot lunches. Besides, employees have time to go out to a nearby restaurant for lunch.

Light lunches are served in schools and workplaces because people have to go back to work or to classes after the lunch period is over. Some people make their lunch with leftovers from the previous night's dinner. Therefore, the food doesn't go to waste.

Linner or Dunch

I grew up in the South, where we ate only two meals on Sundays. The first meal was breakfast. Then we went to church. After the church services were over, the family sat down to a big meal that was prepared the day before. We called it dinner, but when I took my grandchildren to church and served them dinner around 2 p.m., they insisted they were entitled to another meal before the day was over.

Therefore, they taught me a word I had never heard before, and I am an English teacher. The words for the meal eaten between lunch and dinner are linner (for a late lunch) or dunch (for an early dinner).

They explained to me that the meal after church on Sundays is called "linner" because 2 p.m. is too late for lunch and too early for dinner. I checked it out, and they were right. Linner is a combination of lunch and dinner. Dunch is also a combination of lunch and dinner.

Whether you call it linner or dunch, the meal is much smaller than dinner. It could be a quick sandwich, fruits, a salad, cookies, and tea to tide someone over until dinner.

Dinner

Dinner is the third main meal of the day, not counting those combination meals like brunch, linner, or dunch. For most families, dinner is the largest meal and is eaten in the evening. The word "dinner" is used on special occasions such as Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas dinner, which could be eaten earlier. In that case, the meal is bigger and eaten in the afternoon rather than in the evening.

A dinner meal usually consists of a meat, a vegetable, a starch, bread, a dessert, and tea. On special occasions, there might be more than one meat, more than one vegetable, more than one starchy side dish, and more than one dessert.

Supper or Lupper

Today, in the United States and in Canada, there is no distinction between what is eaten for dinner or supper. Both words designate the last meal of the day that is eaten in the evening.

Supper is an older term that used to mean the meal eaten after 6 p.m. That's because farmers worked in the fields until the sun went down. When they got home, they had to wash up because they were dirty from working with farm animals. Supper can be eaten as late as 10 p.m.

The menu for dinner and supper is the same. If there is a light meal between lunch and supper, it is called lupper.

How well do you know your meals?

1. What is the first meal of the day?
2. What is the second meal of the day called?
3. What is the third meal of the day called?
4. In the South, what do farmers call their last meal of the day?
5. What meal is eaten between breakfast and lunch?
6. What meal is eaten between lunch and dinner?
7. What is the light meal between lunch and supper?

Answers:

1. breakfast 2. lunch 3. dinner 4. supper 5. brunch 6. linner or dunch 7. lupper