O, how I have complained over “DINNER” in the Oxford English Dictionary [see “Oxford English Dinner“]. The close of 2021 brought an early Christmas surprise: a new, fully revised entry. And it’s not just any revision, but one of those with an extended lexicological and sociohistorical note. The first main definition now says:
1. Originally: the first large meal of the day, typically eaten in the late morning. Later: the main meal of the day, taken either around midday or in the evening. […]
The time and nature of dinner varies according to history, geography, and social factors. In its early history, it was the middle of three daily meals (breakfast, dinner, and supper), whether constituting the main meal or not. The progression from being defined by the time at which it is eaten to being viewed as the main meal of the day, whose time can vary, appears to occur over the course of the 18th and early 19th centuries: for example, John Kersey’s New Eng. Dict. (1702) defines dinner simply as ‘meal at noon’, Read More