Dinner, Tea or Supper ? This is How England Refers to Their Evening Meal
In Europe, very few nations like England, Scotland, Ireland, Russia etc are remained as tea dominating nations while all others prefer their coffee as the hot beverage. Following Portuguese princess Catherine’s introduction of tea to Great Britain in 1662, Brits slowly started falling in love with this healthy, refreshing, stimulating and calming beverage. Eventually tea became the national drink in England.
However, few prove as divisive as the question of how best to describe the last meal of the day. While “dinner”, “tea” and “supper” are all commonly used phrases in England, a recent study has unveiled which has come out on top as the nation’s favourite term, and the results may surprise you.
The results revealed that “dinner” was the most popular word, with 57 per cent of the participants choosing it over the others.
Just over a third of the participants preferred the use of the word “tea”, while only five per cent referred to the meal as “supper”.
However, the study didn’t just examine which word was most favoured across the country, it also looked into how answers varied according to geographical region.
As may be expected, “dinner” was the overwhelmingly preferred term used in the South, while those in the North preferred to say “tea”.
According to the report, competition was very tight in the Midlands, with people living in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Hertfordshire and Shropshire only slightly more likely to describe the meal as “tea”.
While some may assume that the distinction between the two words comes down to class, YouGov has pointed out that geographical location is a more crucial factor.
More than half of middle class northerners call the evening meal “tea”, alongside 67 per cent of the northern working class.
Moreover, 74 per cent of the middle class and 70 per cent of working class that hail from the South use the term “dinner”.
Reference
1. Original Post + Vote your preference: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/dinner-supper-tea-which-one-uk-brits-debate-evening-meal-yougov-a8363331.html
