For other uses, see Dinner Time. Still life with fruits, nuts, and large wheels of cheese. Dinner usually refers to what is in many Western cultures the largest and most formal meal of the day, which some Dinner recipes eat in the midday. Historically, the largest meal used to be eaten around midday, and called dinner.
Reflecting the typical custom of the 17th century, Louis XIV dined at noon, and had supper at 10:00 pm. But in Europe, dinner began to move later in the day during the 1700s, due to developments in work practices, lighting, financial status, and cultural changes. At the time of the First French Empire an English traveler to Paris remarked upon the “abominable habit of dining as late as seven in the evening”. Henry Mayhew and his brother Augustus begins with the views of the hero on the matter. He dines at 7:00 pm, and often complains of “the disgusting and tradesman-like custom of early dining”, say at 2:00 pm. The “Royal hour” he regards as 8:00 pm, but he does not aspire to that.
A filet mignon dinner with mashed potato, string beans and mushrooms. In many modern usages, the term dinner refers to the evening meal, which is now typically the largest meal of the day in most Western cultures. When this meaning is used, the preceding meals are usually referred to as breakfast, lunch and perhaps a tea. The divide between different meanings of “dinner” is not cut-and-dried based on either geography or socioeconomic class.