Buzz
A linguist may be able to determine your general region just by knowing what you call your evening meal. However, as an article from Wide Open Eats points out, it's not just about dialect. Dinner and supper actually refer to distinct things—or at least they once did.
In the past, the term dinner referred to the biggest meal of the day, whether it was eaten in the morning, afternoon, or evening. It comes from the non-Classical Latin word disjējūnāre, meaning to break a fast.
On the other hand, supper is more time-specific. Derived from the Old French word souper, meaning an evening meal, it is typically lighter than other meals. In essence, supper and dinner differ more in terms of portion size than the time they are consumed.
In the 1800s, and perhaps even earlier, Americans in some rural areas began referring to their midday meal as dinner, while reserving supper for the evening. This distinction was more about occupation than location. In the South and Midwest, where farmers required substantial energy for the day, the midday meal was larger (thus the use of the word dinner). In the evening, supper usually consisted of a light soup, and the act of eating it was called supping. The word supper is indeed connected to suppe, the German word for soup.
This practice persists in some parts of the U.S. As Wide Open Eats discovered via Google Trends, the term “supper” is most commonly searched in states like Wisconsin, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa.
In some parts of the South, this still holds true. “If you grew up in the South post-colonial era, however, your connection to these terms likely has more to do with colloquial history than the time you ate,” Southern Living observes. “For example, you probably heard, 'supper’s ready,' right before Mama or Grandma set a table full of mouth-watering dishes before you.”
However, supper is rarely used today—especially among younger generations—and dinner has become the dominant term nationwide.
