Etymologically
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dinner

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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

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)