dinner

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈdɪn.ə/, US /ˈdɪn.ɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English diner,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French disner (“breakfast”),^[4][2] the infinitive disner (“to take the first meal of the day”) used as a noun,^[4][2][5] from Vulgar Latin *disieiunare (“to break one's fast”), from dis- and Late Latin ieiūnāre (“to fast”),^[4] from Latin ieiūnus (“fasting, hungry”).^[4][6] See dine; it is related to jejune and to French déjeuner “lunch”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first big meal of the day, eaten between about 9 a.m. and noon: about 1300 in Etymonline and Barnhart,^[4][2] 1297 in the OED.^[7] The Old French word meant “breakfast”, as did dinner in Middle English.^[8][4]

Semantic evolution

In English it has always been the main meal of the day, but that meal has moved later.^[4] Until the mid-18th century it was taken about midday, and the change to the evening began with the fashionable classes;^[4] in country districts early dinner long remained usual.^[4] Dinner time is from 1370,^[2] dinner party by 1780 (Barnhart cites Jane Austen's Emma, 1815),^[4][2] and dinner jacket from 1852.^[4] The verb to dinner is from 1748.^[7] A dog's dinner, a mess, is from the late 19th century, and dressed up like a dog's dinner from the 1930s.^[6] The nursery word din-din is from 1905.^[4]

Timeline

• 1297 – the main meal of the day.^[7]
• 1370 – dinner time.^[2]
• 1748 – verb, to dine.^[7]
• 1780 – dinner party.^[4]
• 1852 – dinner jacket.^[4]
• 1905 – din-din.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The main meal of the day, eaten in the evening or at midday.
2. A formal meal or banquet in honour of a person or event.
3. The food served at such a meal.

Word family

• dinnerless

Related words

• dine
• jejune
• diner
• supper
• lunch

Usage notes

In many British dialects dinner is the midday meal, and the evening meal is tea or supper.^[4][9]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ 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)