Supper and Soup Come From the Same Word
Supper is an evening meal. It comes from the French for taking soup, and whether it differs from dinner depends on where you live.
Supper is an evening meal, usually the lighter one. The word is literally soup: Old French *souper* meant to take soup, and the evening meal was named after what people mostly ate at it. Whether supper differs from dinner is one of the sharpest class and regional divides in British English, and it has confused visitors for two centuries.
- An evening meal. *A light supper.*
- A late snack. *Supper before bed.*
- The Last Supper — the final meal in the Gospels. *Leonardo's Last Supper.*
- Supper club — an American dining venue. *An old-fashioned supper club.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | supper | A cold supper. |
| Plural | suppers | Family suppers. |
| Verb | sup | They supped late. |
| Related | soup | Onion soup. |
| Related | sop | A sop of bread. |
- We had supper at eight.The meal.
- Sing for your supper.Proverb: earn what you get.
- The Last Supper is the subject of the fresco.Religious.
Dinner, tea or supper?
- Dinner — the main meal, whenever it is eaten
- Lunch — midday, but called dinner in much of northern England
- Tea — an evening meal in northern England and Scotland; a light afternoon meal elsewhere
- Supper — a late or light meal in some households, the main evening meal in others
- The rule — there is no rule; the words map onto class and region, not the clock
Old French *souper*, to eat the evening meal, from *soupe*, soup or a piece of bread soaked in broth. English took it in the 1200s.
Is supper the same as dinner?
It depends entirely on the household. In many, dinner is the main meal and supper is lighter or later; in others they are the same thing.
Are soup and supper related?
Yes. Both come from the same Germanic root through French, connected with soaking bread in liquid.