Dinner’ the winner

We all do it everyday, it’s something we think about hours before we do it but forget about after we’ve done it. We do it on our laps or around the table - but what do we all call it?

In an attempt to settle the age-old debate on whether the evening meal is called dinner, supper, or tea, new research from Legal & General reveals that over half of Brits, 58%, call their evening meal dinner and over one third, 36% prefer to call it tea. Supper lags behind in the poll as the nation’s least favourite term for the evening meal with only 6%.

At a time when one in seven homebuyers, 15%, want a kitchen that has enough room for a decent sized table, suggesting a comeback of family meal times, Legal & General’s Changing Face of British Homes survey reveals what Britons actually call the evening meal.

The research revealed a regional diversity within the UK. Southerners favour dinner with 82% of Londoners and 69% of the rest of the South choosing to call their evening meal dinner. Whereas well over half of people living in the North, 61%, say that their evening meal is tea.

Continuing the debate, the Welsh are the most likely to call their evening meal supper, 11%, compared to just 5% of Southerners and 4% of people living in the North.

Interestingly lifestyle also plays a key part in the terminology we use. At 44%, people with children under the age of 18 are the most likely to call their evening meal, tea, whereas young professionals and couples of the same gender tend to use dinner, at 64% and 69% respectively. Dinner is the preferred term for those who are retired, 60%, as it is for empty nesters, 61% and people living on their own, 61%.

The Oxford English Dictionary agrees with the majority, defining dinner as the 'main meal of the day'. Tea is either a 'light meal in the late afternoon' or a 'cooked evening meal', and supper as ‘a light or informal evening meal’.

Ruth Wilkins, head of communications at Legal & General’s general insurance business commented: “The Changing Faces of British Home research highlighted that eating together as a household is a regular experience in just 30% of households in the UK. Although we may use different terminology to describe our evening meal, the number of people that still regularly eat together is low. Feedback from the research would indicate that changes in our home lives means that the traditional role of the kitchen as a place to gather to eat is changing too. For example, the kitchen table may be for some the centre for studying and sending emails, rather than eating.

“Whatever we call our evening meal, or do in our kitchens, it is important that home owners have insurance cover in place that meets their changing needs. Legal & General provides home insurance cover that can be tailored to reflect people’s changing home life and the new choices we are making – like we appear to be doing with our choice of evening meal.”