MEALTIMES
In the beginning of the sixteenth century in England, dinner, the main meal of the day, used to begin at 11:00am. Meals tended over time to be eaten later and later in the day: by the eighteenth century, dinner was eaten at about 3:00pm.
By the early nineteenth century, lunch, what Palmer in Moveable Feast's calls "the furtive snack" had become a sit-down meal at the dinning table in the middle of the day. Upper-class people were eating breakfast earlier, and dinner later, than they had formerly done.
In 1808 dinner was a late meal and supper a snack taken at the very end of the day before people retired to bed. For a long time luncheon was a very upper-class habit; ordinarily working people dined in the early evening, and contented themselves as they had done for centuries with a mid-day snack. Supper now means a light evening meal that replaces dinner; such a meal is especially popular if people have eaten a heavy lunch.
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BREAKFAST
English, a compound word describing the purpose of the meal. First instance of this word in print is 1463: Breakfast. That with which a person breaks his fast in the morning; the first meal of the day.
DINNER
French, from verb "diner," meaning to dine. First instance of this work in English print is 1297: The chief meal of the day, eaten originally, and still by the majority of the people, about the middle of the day. But now, by the professional and fashionable classes, usually in the evening.
SUPPER
French, from verb "souper," to sup. First instance of this word in English print is 1275: The last meal of the day; (contextually) for the hour at which this is taken, supper-time; also such a meal made the occasion of a social or festive gathering. Formerly the last of three meals of the day (breakfast, dinner, and supper); now applied to a substantial meal of the day when dinner is take in the middle of the day, or to a late meal following an early evening dinner. Supper is usually a less formal meal than late dinner.
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