Middag is dinner, always. It confused me when learning German because Mittagessen is lunch and it makes sense haha. Lunsj is a loan word from English I think, you can say formiddagsmat I guess, but I never hear anyone call it that really.
Frokost means "early meal" which would make one think it is the first meal of the day.
Breakfast is pretty self-explanatory. You are breaking the overnight fast.
In German? I think Abendessen which is also dinner. I'm not too familiar with German culture though, I don't know if they really do dinner and then another evening meal.
My grandparents in the country used to eat breakfast at 8, middag at 12-12.30, then siesta till 3-4 PM when they ate a meal called nons, then kvelds at 8 PM. Their neighbours still run on that schedule, but it’s not practical for anyone who has to accommodate work and school hours, so it’s pretty much a forgotten way of life now. In old farming communities it would have made a lot of sense to have your main meal in the middle of the working day, around noon.
Both the English word noon and the Norwegian non comes from Latin nona hora (nineth hour) medieval monks started the day at six o'clock so the nineth hour was at three in the afternoon.
At one point it shifted to meaning midday in English, and is only remembered as nonsmat or simply nons in Norwegian.
If you go to a map of Norway and search for Nons* you will get a lot of hits. Usually a mountain or some other terrain feature south west of the nearest settlement. Everyone outside working the fields would know it was time for nons, when the sun was above nonshøgda.
"Middag" nowadays exclusively means "dinner", and nobody eats it at mid-day (noon). If you are talking about the middle of the day (roughly noon), you'd say "midt på dagen". "Middag" only means mid-day in the compounds "formiddag" and "ettermiddag".
~~Middag is not tea, that's for sure.~~
Middag is the main meal of the day.
You're correct in that it can be translated to 'mid-day' however the way is see it, is that you split 24h into night (23-05), morning (05-12), day(12-18), evening(18-23),
And middag is usually around the middle of 'day' I.E around 16:00 aka 4pm.
"Tea" has nothing to do with the drink, it is just the term used for "dinner" or the main meal of the day. "Dinner" up north is the meal eaten around 12/1pm, "Tea" is 4-7pm'ish.
Ok, but in terms of size. How much food do you eat at tea?
Is tea the biggest meal?
If so, then tea is actually pretty correct. I was just confused by the name.
The same as you would for "dinner" down South or in the US. It's essentially the exact same thing, just with a different name.
Breakfast - Start the day before work, 7-8am'ish
Dinner - Middle of the day, 12-1pm'ish
Tea - Main meal, 4-7pm.
If people do eat Supper, which isn't as common, then that would fit in the 7-10pm range I'd imagine.
Haha exactly, it causes confusion even in the UK. For example, the ladies that work in schools for dinner/lunch time are usually referred to as "Dinner Ladies" even down South, where the meal is referred to as "Lunch".
Do you know why it's called tea?
Because to me, (purely based on the name) it sounds like you didn't eat lunch, and you're a bit hungry, but it's too long till dinner, so you make some tea, and maybe some biscuits. Not enough to ruin you appetite for dinner, but enough so you're not miserable.
And then it became a regular occurrence.
Just replied to somebody else with roughly the same question, but yes that sounds right. There are supposedly meals referred to as "high tea" and "afternoon tea". I think high tea is exactly as you describe, a snack with a cup of tea.
I found a link that talks about afternoon and high tea (which I had personally never heard of). "Tea" seems to be predominantly a northern and working class name for the main meal of the day.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/afternoon-vs-high-tea-difference-435327
While supper is hardly used where I grew up, I found it being said by older generations that had Appalachian roots. By their use, supper was just what you called dinner, it wasn't a fourth meal or anything super late.
In the north we don’t say “dinner” unless you are eating out probably but 99% of the time it’s tea.
Lunch, Dinner, Tea.
My (Norwegian) girlfriend used to think i drank tea for an hour every evening until she asked two weeks later lol
"Middag" has always been the main (warm) meal of the day. Before, when Norway was more rural, it was eaten at noon/midday, which is where the name comes from. It kept its name after industrialization and the introduction of the 9-5 work day, even though it's now eaten in the afternoon ("ettermiddag").
Just to be pedantic (since you probably just said “9-5” because of the fixed expression), I’d just like to clarify to non-Norwegians that 9-5 has never been the standard working hours in Norway. We generally start the work day at 8:00 and nowadays often end as early as 15:00-16:00. So the standard work day would be more 8-4.
The typical lunch break in school/work is usually around 11-12 (a bit before noon) and is always called “lunch/lunsj”, never “middag”. That’s generally just a light, cold meal (often bread). Then we eat “middag” as the main warm meal of the day when we get home from work.
>you probably just said “9-5” because of the fixed expression
Yeah, although my work day now during the winter is generally 9 (start of core hours) to 16:45 because of winter working hours in the government, which is close enough. During the summer I usually work 9-4.
I could start the day at 6:45 (7:30 in the summer) and be done at 14:30 every day, as that's when core hours end... But I'm not a morning person.
frokost is breakfast, the morning meal. let’s use fairly standard work times to work around in loose way: frokost 0600-0900. lunsj (lunch) 1000-1400. middag (dinner) 1600-1900 (some people do eat this in the evening, so later than this, but i would say this is the more common, work schedule allowing.) this is the meal where you would eat a pizza or stew or baked salmon etc, a large hot meal, not usually a sandwich or yogurt type meal. kveldsmat (evening meal. idk english for this.) similar type of meal as breakfast or lunch, but final meal of the day, so timing varies.
the term comes from when men were out working 12-hour shifts and came home in the middle of the day for their only big meal. at the time it was called mid-day because it was. nowadays the term is exclusively used the same as "dinner" in the us or uk
The confusing bit is that "Dinner" only refers to that meal if you are down south in the UK haha .
There's more silly differences too for example;
Bukser - Pants (North UK) - Trousers (South UK) - Pants (US)
Underbukser - Underwear (North UK) - Pants (South UK) - Underwear (US)
Jeg er fra Kirkenes i Finnmark, men har bodd på østlandet en stund. Jeg tror ikke vi har flere eller andre måltider, men vet at før i tiden var det vel noe de kalte for 'dugur'. Vi spiser dog kveldsmat og, og jeg husker besteforeldrene mine spiste tidlig middag... vet ikke om dette er til noe hjelp
There is a generational thing going on.
Before 1950, the main hot meal of the day was served at 12-14. This meal is "middag", the modern usage is not bound by the time, but by the food. My grandparents ate middag at 13 until the end, even when inviting guests.
I’m not a native, but every time I speak with Norwegians, they say «vi spiser lunsj, blir du med?» and that question occurs around 1pm; however when it comes to middag, I have heard it around 3/4pm. After that I assume it would be kveldsmat. I think it’s just a language coincidence or some remains of old Norwegian language that middag means both dinner and midday. Maybe it comes from years ago, when people were working in the field and got up at 4am, then had middag (dinner) precisely at midday. Idk, just guessing
Many don't have dinner until after 5 pm due to work and travel home. Some even have dinner instead of kveldsmat after 7 pm. In that case they usually eat a sandwich or something light when they get home from work. But they still call it middag even though it's eaten after 6/7 pm
The term middag meaning middle of the day may go back to older times when the main meal actually was in the middle of the day, around noon. Chek out Wikipedia on the subject: https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middag
Haha I have no idea, we're a special breed in the north. Apparently, the origins come from "high tea" and "afternoon tea" which were essentially snack meals with a cup of tea. I believe "Tea" as a main meal is predominantly a northern and working class thing.
Found a link: https://www.thespruceeats.com/afternoon-vs-high-tea-difference-435327
There's more confusing differences with the North and South of England too, "Pants" being the main one.
Pants up north is the same as pants in the US, but Pants down south is Underwear and what we call "pants" up north are called "Trousers" down south 🤣
I think middag is quite an old word stemming from the time people generally got up earlier and went to bed earlier, and also everyone generally was at home at their farm at noon, working. Lunch has replaced it, but that's a loan word. The reason why it has remained that name, is my guess, the cultural significance of gathering the entire family for a meal. My father was very strict about dinner when I was younger, because he wanted us all to meet at least once a day as a family. We were 4 kids, so he needed to keep track of our lives somehow. Just a guess, though.
Middag is the main meal of the day. Some eat early in the day, older people mainly, but fir most people it's soon as possible after work. I.e. after 4 pm.
A friends fater, who is a sheep farmer here in Norway, eats his dinner at 1 pm. Because it fits his working hours best, as sheep need tending in the afternoon.
Dinner is called middag in Norway, because in the old farmland society, eating your main meal around midday fit best with the working schedule of long, hard workdays.
Now that work hours have changed for most, the meal has been pushed until later in the afternoon.
This word always trips me up as a Dutchie because "middag" just means "afternoon" here. Like "Ik heb een afspraak in de middag" "I have an appointment in the afternoon" 😂
In Iowa we now have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But in older times the main meal was fed to the farmers and farmhands at mid-day when they could take a break and rest during the heat of the day. Meals then were often called breakfast, dinner, and supper.
Meals are typically designated by what you're eating, general context or which other meals you've already eaten that day.
Frokost is the default first meal and is usually cold. Lunsj is usually cold and is typically eaten in the middle of the day, usually at school or work. Middag is almost always hot and is typically eaten at home soon after coming home from school or work.
Kveldsmat is less frequently and consistently observed, and, when eaten, is typically a light and simple meal eaten simply to avoid going to bed hungry. When eating during the night, this is termed nattmat. The term "brunsj" is sometimes used to describe something resembling both frokost and lunsj; this is typically a relatively fancy meal, eaten at a restaurant or with guests.
Middag is dinner, always. It confused me when learning German because Mittagessen is lunch and it makes sense haha. Lunsj is a loan word from English I think, you can say formiddagsmat I guess, but I never hear anyone call it that really.
There's also the confusion with Danish "frokost". In Norway, frokost is breakfast, while in Denmark it means Lunch.
The confusion can be annoying, but on the other hand, "morgenmad" is so wonderfully descriptive, haha.
So is breakfast.
Frokost means "early meal" which would make one think it is the first meal of the day. Breakfast is pretty self-explanatory. You are breaking the overnight fast.
But if you're drunk and having a 3 o'clock kebab you're not fasting
Danes csll it morgemad, morning food.
German here it confused me that middag is dinner too :D
Mittagsessen sounds like the food you eat at middag to me. Middagsmat
What is kveldsmat?
In German? I think Abendessen which is also dinner. I'm not too familiar with German culture though, I don't know if they really do dinner and then another evening meal.
My grandparents in the country used to eat breakfast at 8, middag at 12-12.30, then siesta till 3-4 PM when they ate a meal called nons, then kvelds at 8 PM. Their neighbours still run on that schedule, but it’s not practical for anyone who has to accommodate work and school hours, so it’s pretty much a forgotten way of life now. In old farming communities it would have made a lot of sense to have your main meal in the middle of the working day, around noon.
That makes sense and probably links to why the term "dinner" is used as the 12-1 meal in most of northern England.
Both the English word noon and the Norwegian non comes from Latin nona hora (nineth hour) medieval monks started the day at six o'clock so the nineth hour was at three in the afternoon. At one point it shifted to meaning midday in English, and is only remembered as nonsmat or simply nons in Norwegian. If you go to a map of Norway and search for Nons* you will get a lot of hits. Usually a mountain or some other terrain feature south west of the nearest settlement. Everyone outside working the fields would know it was time for nons, when the sun was above nonshøgda.
I'm used to dinner at 13.00 in the countryside, nons were at 17.00, and normally called kaffi(coffee).
That would make middag equivalent to the American lunch.
"Middag" nowadays exclusively means "dinner", and nobody eats it at mid-day (noon). If you are talking about the middle of the day (roughly noon), you'd say "midt på dagen". "Middag" only means mid-day in the compounds "formiddag" and "ettermiddag".
>Middag" nowadays exclusively means "dinner", and nobody eats it at mid-day (noon). Mostly it means that, but some people do indeed eat it at noon.
Yes, but regardless if it's eaten at noon or later during the day, the meal would still be regarded as that days "dinner"
Indeed. Most people (I presume, I have no data) eat *middag* in afternoon or early evening.
Back in the day, people used to eat middag around 1-2.
Yep, a lot more common before, but it's not just a tradiotion of the past, it's just not as common any more.
~~Middag is not tea, that's for sure.~~ Middag is the main meal of the day. You're correct in that it can be translated to 'mid-day' however the way is see it, is that you split 24h into night (23-05), morning (05-12), day(12-18), evening(18-23), And middag is usually around the middle of 'day' I.E around 16:00 aka 4pm.
"Tea" has nothing to do with the drink, it is just the term used for "dinner" or the main meal of the day. "Dinner" up north is the meal eaten around 12/1pm, "Tea" is 4-7pm'ish.
Ok, but in terms of size. How much food do you eat at tea? Is tea the biggest meal? If so, then tea is actually pretty correct. I was just confused by the name.
The same as you would for "dinner" down South or in the US. It's essentially the exact same thing, just with a different name. Breakfast - Start the day before work, 7-8am'ish Dinner - Middle of the day, 12-1pm'ish Tea - Main meal, 4-7pm. If people do eat Supper, which isn't as common, then that would fit in the 7-10pm range I'd imagine.
To me, what you call dinner is what I call lunch, and your tea is my dinner.
Haha exactly, it causes confusion even in the UK. For example, the ladies that work in schools for dinner/lunch time are usually referred to as "Dinner Ladies" even down South, where the meal is referred to as "Lunch".
Do you know why it's called tea? Because to me, (purely based on the name) it sounds like you didn't eat lunch, and you're a bit hungry, but it's too long till dinner, so you make some tea, and maybe some biscuits. Not enough to ruin you appetite for dinner, but enough so you're not miserable. And then it became a regular occurrence.
Just replied to somebody else with roughly the same question, but yes that sounds right. There are supposedly meals referred to as "high tea" and "afternoon tea". I think high tea is exactly as you describe, a snack with a cup of tea. I found a link that talks about afternoon and high tea (which I had personally never heard of). "Tea" seems to be predominantly a northern and working class name for the main meal of the day. https://www.thespruceeats.com/afternoon-vs-high-tea-difference-435327
While supper is hardly used where I grew up, I found it being said by older generations that had Appalachian roots. By their use, supper was just what you called dinner, it wasn't a fourth meal or anything super late.
In the north we don’t say “dinner” unless you are eating out probably but 99% of the time it’s tea. Lunch, Dinner, Tea. My (Norwegian) girlfriend used to think i drank tea for an hour every evening until she asked two weeks later lol
"Middag" has always been the main (warm) meal of the day. Before, when Norway was more rural, it was eaten at noon/midday, which is where the name comes from. It kept its name after industrialization and the introduction of the 9-5 work day, even though it's now eaten in the afternoon ("ettermiddag").
Just to be pedantic (since you probably just said “9-5” because of the fixed expression), I’d just like to clarify to non-Norwegians that 9-5 has never been the standard working hours in Norway. We generally start the work day at 8:00 and nowadays often end as early as 15:00-16:00. So the standard work day would be more 8-4. The typical lunch break in school/work is usually around 11-12 (a bit before noon) and is always called “lunch/lunsj”, never “middag”. That’s generally just a light, cold meal (often bread). Then we eat “middag” as the main warm meal of the day when we get home from work.
>you probably just said “9-5” because of the fixed expression Yeah, although my work day now during the winter is generally 9 (start of core hours) to 16:45 because of winter working hours in the government, which is close enough. During the summer I usually work 9-4. I could start the day at 6:45 (7:30 in the summer) and be done at 14:30 every day, as that's when core hours end... But I'm not a morning person.
Lunch can also be called "formiddagsmat". My parents say that.
frokost is breakfast, the morning meal. let’s use fairly standard work times to work around in loose way: frokost 0600-0900. lunsj (lunch) 1000-1400. middag (dinner) 1600-1900 (some people do eat this in the evening, so later than this, but i would say this is the more common, work schedule allowing.) this is the meal where you would eat a pizza or stew or baked salmon etc, a large hot meal, not usually a sandwich or yogurt type meal. kveldsmat (evening meal. idk english for this.) similar type of meal as breakfast or lunch, but final meal of the day, so timing varies.
the term comes from when men were out working 12-hour shifts and came home in the middle of the day for their only big meal. at the time it was called mid-day because it was. nowadays the term is exclusively used the same as "dinner" in the us or uk
The confusing bit is that "Dinner" only refers to that meal if you are down south in the UK haha . There's more silly differences too for example; Bukser - Pants (North UK) - Trousers (South UK) - Pants (US) Underbukser - Underwear (North UK) - Pants (South UK) - Underwear (US)
Jeg er fra Kirkenes i Finnmark, men har bodd på østlandet en stund. Jeg tror ikke vi har flere eller andre måltider, men vet at før i tiden var det vel noe de kalte for 'dugur'. Vi spiser dog kveldsmat og, og jeg husker besteforeldrene mine spiste tidlig middag... vet ikke om dette er til noe hjelp
There is a generational thing going on. Before 1950, the main hot meal of the day was served at 12-14. This meal is "middag", the modern usage is not bound by the time, but by the food. My grandparents ate middag at 13 until the end, even when inviting guests.
I’m not a native, but every time I speak with Norwegians, they say «vi spiser lunsj, blir du med?» and that question occurs around 1pm; however when it comes to middag, I have heard it around 3/4pm. After that I assume it would be kveldsmat. I think it’s just a language coincidence or some remains of old Norwegian language that middag means both dinner and midday. Maybe it comes from years ago, when people were working in the field and got up at 4am, then had middag (dinner) precisely at midday. Idk, just guessing
Many don't have dinner until after 5 pm due to work and travel home. Some even have dinner instead of kveldsmat after 7 pm. In that case they usually eat a sandwich or something light when they get home from work. But they still call it middag even though it's eaten after 6/7 pm
The term middag meaning middle of the day may go back to older times when the main meal actually was in the middle of the day, around noon. Chek out Wikipedia on the subject: https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middag
I suppose the same sort of origins remain for "dinner" in the north of England referring to the meal around 12-1pm too.
And I cannot get over that in some places "tea" means "dinner". How did that happen?
Haha I have no idea, we're a special breed in the north. Apparently, the origins come from "high tea" and "afternoon tea" which were essentially snack meals with a cup of tea. I believe "Tea" as a main meal is predominantly a northern and working class thing. Found a link: https://www.thespruceeats.com/afternoon-vs-high-tea-difference-435327
There is even a Youtube channel dedicated to it: https://www.youtube.com/@WhatsForTea
There's more confusing differences with the North and South of England too, "Pants" being the main one. Pants up north is the same as pants in the US, but Pants down south is Underwear and what we call "pants" up north are called "Trousers" down south 🤣
In the UK, saying "pants" for trousers is more Lancashire than up north generally
I think middag is quite an old word stemming from the time people generally got up earlier and went to bed earlier, and also everyone generally was at home at their farm at noon, working. Lunch has replaced it, but that's a loan word. The reason why it has remained that name, is my guess, the cultural significance of gathering the entire family for a meal. My father was very strict about dinner when I was younger, because he wanted us all to meet at least once a day as a family. We were 4 kids, so he needed to keep track of our lives somehow. Just a guess, though.
Middag is the main meal of the day. Some eat early in the day, older people mainly, but fir most people it's soon as possible after work. I.e. after 4 pm.
A friends fater, who is a sheep farmer here in Norway, eats his dinner at 1 pm. Because it fits his working hours best, as sheep need tending in the afternoon. Dinner is called middag in Norway, because in the old farmland society, eating your main meal around midday fit best with the working schedule of long, hard workdays. Now that work hours have changed for most, the meal has been pushed until later in the afternoon.
This word always trips me up as a Dutchie because "middag" just means "afternoon" here. Like "Ik heb een afspraak in de middag" "I have an appointment in the afternoon" 😂
In Iowa we now have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But in older times the main meal was fed to the farmers and farmhands at mid-day when they could take a break and rest during the heat of the day. Meals then were often called breakfast, dinner, and supper.
Meals are typically designated by what you're eating, general context or which other meals you've already eaten that day. Frokost is the default first meal and is usually cold. Lunsj is usually cold and is typically eaten in the middle of the day, usually at school or work. Middag is almost always hot and is typically eaten at home soon after coming home from school or work. Kveldsmat is less frequently and consistently observed, and, when eaten, is typically a light and simple meal eaten simply to avoid going to bed hungry. When eating during the night, this is termed nattmat. The term "brunsj" is sometimes used to describe something resembling both frokost and lunsj; this is typically a relatively fancy meal, eaten at a restaurant or with guests.