1083: dinner Nov 26, 2017

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To many people, ‘dinner’ is the last meal of the day, which can also be called 'supper' or in some places 'tea', while to many other people in certain places, 'dinner' is the mid-day meal, as opposed to something else like 'lunch'. Though 'dinner' as the final meal of the day may be more common globally, neither that nor the alternative labelling of what would otherwise be 'lunch' was not without reason. The word 'dinner' comes from the Old French, 'disner' meaning 'to dine' and when it was adopted into English, it often would denote the largest meal of the day, not when it was timed. Moreover, it is believed that 'disner' comes from 'desjëuner' meaning 'to reverse' and 'fasting', or somewhat more idiomatically: ‘to break fast’. In this way, a word that originally that either descended from or at least is related to breakfast now means 'supper' or 'lunch'.

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