Lunch - one word, many meanings

"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." Douglas Adams

I think this particular painting - just snatched from Google Images - probably matches Douglas Adams 'illusion' comment. It's somewhat idealised isn't it? - particularly since there are no lunch guests as yet. Who knows what disarray they will cause - both in terms of actual mess and also in what is said and discussed.

For a while now I have been thinking about another mini-series on the topic of lunch. Because, lunch - maybe even more than any of the other meals we might indulge in in our day - has such a wide range of possibilities, that range from an apple - or a chocolate biscuit grabbed from the fridge and eaten on the run, as it were, to a sit-down meal in the poshest of posh restaurants with a view to die for, with a massive array of other options in between. So this is just a short introduction. Random quotes, definitions, history - that sort of thing. Beginning with a general definition from Oxford Languages:

"Lunch - a meal eaten in the middle of the day, typically one that is lighter or less formal than an evening meal." Oxford Languages

Which obviously doesn't include those idealised lunch parties, and formal lunches of one kind of another.

History. Well it depends who and where you are doesn't it? When I looked at Wikipedia's version of the history of lunch it seemed to focus only on people who had enough money to be able to have a leisurely meal at lunchtime. I'm definitely oversimplifying here, but originally the big meal of the day - called dinner - was in the middle of the day with supper in the evening. Then breakfast got stretched into the morning with lighter snacks pushing dinner eventually into the evening. I'm talking Britain here of course, and indeed my 'lunch series' will be very much focussed on British and Australian lunch - which are more or less the same.

What about the poor? Well they just ate when they could and what they could find, grow, buy or have given to them - maybe as part of their wages. Did slaves have lunch in ancient times? Indeed when did people actually start eating lunch? I can't imagine that it was the main meal of the day for the workers of history. I shall dive into all of those kind of questions another time. One thing I did take from another site Food Timeline was that mealtimes for the poor at least, may have been influenced by when monks ate, which, of course, was bound up with all those prayer sessions that occurred at different times of the day. The website has more detail about the history of lunch if you are interested, but it's rather boringly laid out and therefore, if you are feeling tired like me not that interesting.

Etymology. Always fascinating if you like words. And I guess if you ponder on those long ago origins they point to what those meals might have involved.

"a shortened form of luncheon(q.v.) in this sense (1650s), which is of uncertain origin; it appears to be identical with an older word meaning "thick piece, hunk" (1570s), which perhaps evolved from lump (n.) [OED]. There also was a contemporary nuncheon "light mid-day meal," from noon + Middle English schench "drink." Old English had nonmete "afternoon meal," literally "noon-meat" (Middle English non-mete)." Online Etymology Dictionary

"According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the etymology of lunch is uncertain. It may have evolved from lump in a similar way to hunch, a derivative of hump, and bunch, a derivative of bump. Alternatively, it may have evolved from the Spanish lonja, meaning 'slice of ham'. It was first recorded in 1591 with the meaning 'thick piece, hunk' as in "lunch of bacon". The modern definition was first recorded in 1829." Wikipedia

And here's a nice little bit of change in meaning:

"Slang phrase out to lunch "insane, stupid, clueless" first recorded 1955, on notion of being "not there." Online Etymology Dictionary

Now why did that happen?

And there I will end for now. I actually found this in my list of posts started and not completed. I'm guessing I didn't really know where to go from there. So many possible directions you could go with all of those old words for example. But I will come back to them and those different kinds of lunches. But I'll leave it for now because I just wrote about one lunch last week.

But I'll leave you with one of A.A. Milne's lovely sayings. Ironic really considering the above etymological ramble.

"It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?" A.A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh)

YEARS GONE BY

February 19

2024 - Old-fashioned grilling

2023 - Nothing

2022 - Nothing

2021 - Recipe stories

2020 - So much salt

2019 - Nothing

2018 - An urban supermarket

2017 - Foster's - not so Australian anymore