Initially, workers were sent home for a quick dinner provided by their wives, but as the workplace was moved farther from home, working men took to giving themselves something portable to eat during a break in the middle of the day. With the growth of industrialisation in the 19th century, male workers began to work long shifts at the factory, severely disrupting the age-old eating habits of rural life. In the summer, a few dishes of fresh fruit should be added to the luncheon, or, instead of this, a compote of fruit or fruit tart or pudding. In families where there is a nursery, the mistress of the house often partakes of the meal with the children and makes it her luncheon. If a substantial meal is desired, rump-steaks or mutton chops may be served, as also veal cutlets, kidneys. The remains of cold joints, nicely garnished, a few sweets, or a little hashed meat, poultry, or game, are the usual articles placed on the table for luncheon, with bread and cheese, biscuits, butter, etc. Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861) – a guide to all aspects of running a household in Victorian Britain, edited by Isabella Beeton – had much less to explain about luncheon than about dinners or ball suppers: Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, a guide to all aspects of running a household in Victorian Britainīeginning in the 1840s, afternoon tea supplemented this luncheon at four o'clock. Lunch was a ladies' light meal when the Prince of Wales stopped to eat a dainty luncheon with lady friends, he was laughed at for this effeminacy. As late as 1945, Emily Post wrote in the magazine Etiquette that luncheon is "generally given by and for women, but it is not unusual, especially in summer places or in town on Saturday or Sunday, to include an equal number of men" – hence the mildly disparaging phrase, "the ladies who lunch". The meal was often relatively light, and often included left-overs from the previous night's dinner, which were often plentiful. Until the early 19th century, luncheon was generally reserved for the ladies, who would often have lunch with one another when their husbands were out. But formal "supper parties", artificially lit by candles, sometimes with entertainment, persisted as late as the Regency era, and a ball normally included supper, often served very late. The late evening meal, called supper, became squeezed out as dinner advanced into the evening, and often became a snack. A meal called lunch came to fill the gap. In the early to mid-17th century, the meal could be any time between late morning and mid-afternoon.ĭuring the late 17th and 18th centuries, this meal was gradually pushed back into the evening, creating a greater time gap between breakfast and dinner. During the Middle Ages, the main meal of the day, then called dinner, for almost everyone, took place late in the morning after several hours of work, when there was no need for artificial lighting. The same is true of what was eaten long ago in history, as food tastes, menu items, and meal periods have changed dramatically over time. What one society eats may seem extraordinary to another. Meals have become ingrained in each society as being natural and logical. The Oxford Companion to Food claims that luncheon is a Northern England English word that is derived from the Old English word nuncheon or nunchin meaning ' noon drink '. Originally interchangeable with lunch, it is now used in specially formal circumstances. It is possible that luncheon is an extension of lunch in a similarly way with punch to puncheon and trunch to truncheon. Luncheon ( US: / ˈ l ə n t ʃ ə n/ or UK: / ˈ l ʌ n t ʃ ə n/) has a similarly uncertain origin according to the OED, which they claim is "related in some way" to lunch. The modern definition was first recorded in 1829. It was first recorded in 1591 with the meaning ' thick piece, hunk ' as in "lunch of bacon". Alternatively, it may have evolved from the Spanish lonja, meaning ' slice of ham '. It may have evolved from lump in a similar way to hunch, a derivative of hump, and bunch, a derivative of bump. According to the Oxford English Dictionary ( OED), the etymology of lunch is uncertain.
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