FatTOUSH
I am answering this after having read all of the other answers posted so far.
I am not from the South, and as I was growing up, the word supper was not used by my immediate family, but it was something that I heard being used by relatives who had been born and/or raised in the South. I also heard it in movies, television shows, songs, and I read it in books. I never really understood exactly how to apply it correctly, because I believed (and still believe) that for those who have such a meal in their daily repertoire, it is actually a fourth and separate meal beyond breakfast, lunch and dinner. If it is so, it confuses me, because those same people use phrases such as “three meals a day” or “three square meals”. I always figured it was yet one more puzzling thing that I didn’t understand about country folks, meh.
~
Thank you, that’s exactly why it’s confusing. Lunch can be lunch or dinner and dinner can be dinner or supper, or dinner can be called lunch or dinner, or dinner can be called dinner or supper, and the for some people in some places it’s four separate meals as opposed to three . . .
Not easily explained.
~
It’s not something I’d ask anyone about, it has no bearing on me whatsoever. I’m merely referring to the fact that it’s something I’ve heard from a very young age and I know it means different things to different people. My answers above are based on responding to the question as asked, not on dinner invitations or my desire to seek further information on the topic.
Whether you personally have never known of it or not, there are people who do not default to three meals per day. Some have fewer per day than that and some have more per day than that.
~
Gracious gracias! Good catch.
~
my2cents 