supper

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English soper, borrowed from Anglo-Norman super and soper (modern souper), the infinitive soper (“to eat the evening meal”) used as a noun,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} as dinner is from the French infinitive disner.^[7][8] The French verb is of Germanic origin,^[4][9] related to Middle Low German sūpen (“to drink”) and Old English sūpan (“to sup, drink”),^[9][6] and so to English sup, sip, sop and soup.^[8][9][7] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary records the noun and verb in Anglo-Norman from 1121–25.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The evening meal: about 1250, spelled sopere, in Barnhart;^[3] Etymonline dates it to the mid-13th century and Merriam-Webster to the 13th century.^[4][5] The OED's first quotations for the meal date from about 1300, in the South English Legendary and Havelok,^[2] and the Last Supper is recorded from before 1300.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Supper was originally the last of the three meals of the day, after breakfast and dinner;^[4][11] it came to mean the last substantial meal when dinner is eaten at midday, or a lighter late meal after an early evening dinner, and it is usually less formal than a late dinner.^[4][2][12] In Bible translations it renders the main meal of the day, Greek deipnon and Latin cena;^[4] since about 1300 it has named the last meal of Christ with his disciples,^[2][4] and the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, from the Wycliffite Bible (c1384).^[2] A supper given as a social or fund-raising occasion is recorded from 1598,^[2][5] and suppertime from before 1376, in Piers Plowman.^[3] The verb to supper, to give supper to, dates from 1622;^[2] in Scotland and northern England it meant to give an animal its last feed of the day and bed it down.^[2][5][13]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – sopere, the evening meal.^[3]
• a1300 – the Last Supper.^[2]
• c. 1300 – the last meal of the day.^[2]
• before 1376 – suppertime.^[3]
• c1384 – the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist.^[2]
• 1598 – a social gathering with a supper.^[2]
• 1622 – the verb, to give supper to.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An evening meal, especially a light one or one eaten late: We had soup and bread for supper.
2. A social evening event at which a supper is served, often to raise money: a harvest supper.
3. the (Last) Supper: the last meal of Jesus with his apostles.
4. the Lord's Supper: the Eucharist.

Verb

1. (rare) To give supper to; to eat supper.
2. (Scotland, northern England) To give an animal its last feed of the day.

Word family

• supperless
• suppertime
• Last Supper
• Lord's Supper
• supper club

Related words

• soup
• sup
• sop
• sip
• dinner

Usage notes

The idiom sing for one's supper, to do something in return for a benefit, is given by Collins.^[12] Supper, dinner and tea are used differently for the evening meal in different regions and social classes.^[4][2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ 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)