Supper vs. Dinner

Alana Mairs

May 13, 2010

Tonight, while decid­ing between a grilled cheese and a grilled cheese at the recently opened Acme Cafe in Vancouver, I noticed this head­ing on the menu:

supper heading at acme cafe

My mom, who grew up back east, says sup­per. To me, the right word is din­ner. Is this a poten­tial entry for the Cross-Canada phrase­book? And what do you call it?

7 Comments

Mika

13 May 2010
I say dinner. Supper feels like something an old person would say.

Carolyn

13 May 2010
I grew up in rural bc and definitely my parents said "supper time". But my mum's parents are from Back East. Jake, who grew up in Toronto grew up saying both - interchangeably. Check out this post, it appears as though the US has their own supper vs dinner debate: http://keithelder.net/blog/archive/2008/03/14/Dinner-vs-Supper.aspx

Zameer

13 May 2010
Growing up in Africa within a family of Gujrati-Indians, I was told "khavanu no time che" basically "it's time to eat."

Acme Alan

14 May 2010
Peggy and I grew up in the Okanagan, from prairie decendants, and it was always "supper". In my house "dinner" was what you called lunch. Only Fancy Folks called supper "dinner". Now, after many years of restaurant work, and living in the big city with the fancy folks, we call the evening meal "dinner" now too, but we thought "supper" felt more appropriate for the cafe menu. After all, we're not high-falutin' around here.

Billie

14 May 2010
I'm all about the dinner, but my mom says supper, so there's always confusion when we discuss mealtimes! There are still a few "Supper Clubs" in the area where I grew up in Central Wisconsin. You know, the little restaurants with the brightly colored booths, 4:00 pm early bird specials, and of course the all-you-can-eat Friday night Fish Fry.

Robert

14 May 2010
I grew up in Edmonton, where it was most definitely supper. After spending many years in Ontario and Quebec (dîner anyone?) I at some point began saying dinner. I live in California now, and I only occasionally hear supper used, and probably only from people who don't come from around here.

becky

31 May 2010

I’ve lived in Vancouver for­ever. For me, only lunch is lunch. Supper and din­ner are both sup­per; din­ner just has a nicer out­fit on. And might be expect­ing com­pany. Or have some awk­ward news.

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