dine

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dinen, also dignen,^[2] borrowed from Old French disner, also diner,^{[3][4][5][6][2]} with an Anglo-Norman form deiner;^[7] the modern French verb is dîner.^[7][3] The French verb is traced to Vulgar Latin *disiūnō,^[7][4][6] a contracted form of *disiēiūnō (“to break one's fast”),^{[3][4][8][6][5]} which the OED finds recorded in post-classical Latin from the 11th century.^[7] It is formed from dis- (“undo, reverse”) and Late Latin iēiūnō (“to fast”),^[3][4][5][9] from iēiūnus (“fasting, hungry”),^[3][5] also the source of jejune.^[3][9] Weekley explains that the Old French verb comes from the unstressed stem of the Latin verb and desjuene from the stressed one;^[10] déjeuner, to breakfast, is a learned doublet of the French verb.^[7] The Oxford Dictionary of English instead derives it from desjëuner (“to break fast”).^[11][12] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from about 1150.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To eat the first substantial meal of the day; to eat: about 1325, in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle.^[7][2] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to about 1300.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In French the verb first meant to eat the first meal of the day, to breakfast (early 12th century), and later to eat a meal at midday (early 16th century) and in the evening (before 1747).^[7] The OED explains the shift by changing habits: the first substantial meal of the day moved later, and a light breakfast came in before it, especially for manual workers, while the verb stayed with the main meal.^[7] In English dine meant eating the chief meal of the day from the start;^[3][2] Johnson (1755) defined it as eating the chief meal about the middle of the day.^[14] Today it usually means eating in a restaurant or at a formal dinner.^[7] The transitive sense, to give someone dinner, is dated by Etymonline to the late 14th century^[3] and by the OED to about 1475.^[7] From about 1380 to 1500 dine could also mean simply to eat something.^[7] To dine with Duke Humphrey, to go without dinner, is recorded from 1594,^[7] to dine out by 1758,^[3] and to dine and dash, to leave a restaurant without paying, from 1979, first in North America.^[7] The noun dine, dinner, recorded from before 1425,^[7] is obsolete except in dialect;^[12] it lived on in Scots, as in "the hour o' dine".^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – to eat the chief meal of the day.^[7][2]
• c. 1380 – to eat something (obsolete by 1500).^[7]
• late 14th century – to give a dinner to.^[3]
• before 1425 – noun, dinner (now Scots and dialect).^[7][12]
• 1594 – to dine with Duke Humphrey, to go hungry.^[7]
• 1758 – to dine out.^[3]
• 1979 – to dine and dash.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To eat dinner, the main meal of the day; now often to eat a meal in a restaurant or at a formal dinner: We dined at a small café by the harbour.^[16][5][7]
2. To have something as one's meal; usually followed by on, upon or off: They dined on grilled fish.^[16][5][12]
3. To give a meal to; to entertain someone at dinner, especially in wine and dine: The firm wined and dined its new clients.^[16][5][7]

Noun

1. (obsolete except in dialect) Dinner, or dinner-time.^[12][5][15]

Word family

• diner
• dinette
• dine out

Related words

• dinner
• jejune
• déjeuner

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins