One of the commonly held beliefs in American culture is the need to eat three meals per day. In fact, eating three meals per day is not common in other cultures, and it has been suggested that most Americans don’t actually eat three meals per day. Briefly discussed below is the etymology for some of the words we use to describe these meals.
Breakfast
Breakfast is, of course, generally the first meal of the day, therefore it is the meal that breaks the overnight fast. The English word breakfast combines the verb break and the noun fast. The word was first recorded in English in 1463.
The vowel shift from the long vowel in break to the short vowel in breakfast is a fairly common pattern in English. Some other examples of this pattern are seen in holy/holiday, moon/Monday, sheep/shepherd, and wild/wilderness.
In Old English, morgenmete meaning “morning meal” was used for this meal.
Break came into English from the Proto-Germanic *brekan which is from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhreg-.
The English fast meaning “to abstain from food” is from the Proto-Germanic *fastuz which means “firm.” With regard to the evolution from “firm” to “not eating food” is explained by John Ayto, in his Dictionary of Word Origins:
“The verbal application to ‘eating no food’ originated in the notion of ‘holding fast to a particular observance’—specifically, abstinence from food.”
Lunch/Luncheon
The English word lunch does not have a straightforward etymology regarding its meaning. Initially, lunch does not seem to have referred to a specific meal. John Ayto writes:
“When lunch first appeared on the scene, at end of the 16th century, it was used for a ‘slice or hunk of food.’”
The origins of lunch with this meaning seems to be found in lump in referring to a chunk of bread.
The word lunch with the meaning of "mid-day repast, small meal between breakfast and dinner" first appeared in 1786. Old English used nonmete meaning “noon meal.”
John Ayto suggests that the origins of lunch are to be found in the Spanish lonja meaning “slice.” According to John Ayto:
“The roughly contemporaneous luncheon, probably just an arbitrary lengthening of lunch, came to be used in the early 17th century for a ‘snack’ (the link with ‘hunk or piece of food’ is obvious), and eventually for a ‘light meal.’”
There is an obvious connection between lunch and luncheon with some etymologies seeing lunch stemming from a shortening of lunching which is seen as an early form of luncheon. It should be noted that some etymologies do not see lunch as coming from lunching.
The formation of luncheon also seems to have been influenced by the word nuncheon which was an earlier word for the noon meal. The origins of nuncheon appear to be in the Middle English noneschench which refers to a noon (none) drink (schench).
In older texts, luncheon is spelled lunshin and lunchion.
Dinner/Supper
The word dinner originally referred to the noontime meal at which the lord broke his fast. In other words, dinner was breakfast. In terms of etymology, dinner is first found about 1300 and refers to the first big meal of the day (usually eaten between 9 AM and noon). Dinner is from the Old French disner meaning “breakfast” which is from the Vulgar Late *disjejunare meaning “to break one’s fast.”
In English, dinner has been used for the main meal of the day, but the time of that has gradually shifted later.
In Europe until the middle of the eighteenth century, the practice was to have a large meal about midday. In France, the dinner-hour as at 2 or 3 in the afternoon, but when the Constituent Assembly moved to Paris, the dinner-hour move to about 6 PM.
The word supper came into English in the middle of the thirteenth century as soper meaning “the last meal of the day. It is from the Old French soper meaning “to eat the evening meal.” Generally, supper is considered to be a less formal meal than dinner.
In the United States, dinner and supper are often used interchangeably.
Until about the middle of the nineteenth century, dinner was used to refer to the midday meal while supper referred to a light evening meal.
In medieval England, dinner was a time when the noble classes were able to show off their wealth with fancy dishware and servants bringing in plates of food. With limited artificial lightning, this meal was at midday so that the display of wealth could be more easily seen. The lower classes also ate at midday but with less pomp and ostentatious display.
Snack
While not considered to be an actual meal, many of us have a snack (noun) or snack (verb) on something between meals. The verb to snack came into English about 1300 with the meaning of “to bite or snap.” Its origins seem to be in the Middle Dutch or Flemish snacken meaning “to snatch.” Some etymologists feel that it comes from a Proto-Germanic root *snu- which was used in forming words having to do with the nose. The meaning “to eat a like meal; to have a mere bite or morsel” is first attested in 1807.
The noun snack come into English about 1400 with the meaning of “a snatch or snap.” The modern meaning of “a bit or morsel to eat hastily” is attested in 1757.
Snack bar came into English in 1923 and the form snax in 1942.
More English Etymology
Origins of English: Kinds of meat
Origins of English: Good and Evil
Origins of English: Politics and Government
Origins of English: Hindi Words
Origins of English: Coffin and Casket
Origins of English: Some Cat Expressions
Origins of English: Dunce
Origins of English: Bimbo and Slut