lunch
English
editEtymology
editRecorded since 1580 in the sense “piece, hunk”. The word luncheon with the same meaning is presumably an extension on the pattern of puncheon (“cask”) and truncheon (“cudgel”). But earliest found forms include lunshin and lunching, which are equivalent to lunch + -ing, with the suffix -ing possibly later modified to imitate a French origin.
The sense “light meal” is first attested for luncheon in 1652 and for lunch in 1829, so in this sense the latter is probably a shortening of the former.
Lunch is possibly a derivative of lump (as hunch is from hump. See hunch for more), or represents an alteration of nuncheon, from Middle English nonechenche (“light midday meal”) (see nuncheon) and altered by northern English dialect lunch (“hunk of bread or cheese”) (1590), which perhaps is from lump or from Spanish lonja (“a slice”, literally “loin”).[1]
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /lʌnt͡ʃ/, /lʌnʃ/, [lʌ̃nt͡ʃ]
Audio (Received Pronunciation): (file) Audio (General American): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ʌntʃ
Noun
editlunch (countable and uncountable, plural lunches)
- A light meal usually eaten around midday, notably when not as main meal of the day.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner.
- (cricket) A break in play between the first and second sessions.
- (Minnesota, US) Any small meal, especially one eaten at a social gathering.
- After the funeral there was a lunch for those who didn't go to the cemetery.
- (obsolete) A think piece or hunk (of bread, meat, etc.)
Synonyms
editDerived terms
edit- bag lunch
- blunch
- box lunch
- brunch
- business lunch
- businessman's lunch
- cut lunch
- dairy lunch
- do lunch
- dry lunch
- dunch
- Dutch lunch
- eat someone's lunch
- free lunch
- funch
- launch lunch
- launch one's lunch
- linner
- liquid lunch
- little lunch
- lose one's lunch
- lunchable
- Lunchable
- lunch-and-learn
- lunch box
- lunchbreak
- lunch break
- lunch bucket
- lunch counter
- lunchee
- luncheteria
- lunchette
- lunch hour
- lunch kettle
- lunch lady
- lunchless
- lunchline
- lunchmaking
- lunchmate
- lunch meat
- lunch money
- lunch pail
- lunch pail Democrat
- lunch-time
- lunchtime
- lunchwards
- lunchware
- lunner
- lupper
- no free lunch theorem
- out to lunch
- packed lunch
- pack lunch
- plate lunch
- playlunch
- ploughman's lunch
- plowman's lunch
- postlunch
- power lunch
- prelunch
- sack lunch
- split lunch
- there ain't no such thing as a free lunch
- there is no free lunch
- there is no such thing as a free lunch
- there's no such thing as a free lunch
- three-martini lunch
Descendants
edit- → Bengali: লাঞ্চ (lanco)
- → Cantonese: lunch
- → Dutch: lunch
- → French: lunch
- → German: Lunch
- → Japanese: ランチ (ranchi)
- → Korean: 런치 (reonchi)
- → Norwegian Bokmål: lunsj
- → Norwegian Nynorsk: lunsj
- → Polish: lunch
- → Portuguese: lanche
- → Russian: ланч (lanč), ленч (lenč)
- → Spanish: lonche
- → Swedish: lunch
- → Ukrainian: ланч (lanč)
- → Yiddish: לאָנטש (lontsh)
Translations
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Verb
editlunch (third-person singular simple present lunches, present participle lunching, simple past and past participle lunched)
- (intransitive) To eat lunch.
- I like to lunch in Italian restaurants.
- 1934, Cole Porter, Miss Otis Regrets:
- Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today.
- 1909, Frank Sidgwick, Love and battles, page 291:
- The gentleman had left for London after lunch. Yes, alone; but he had lunched in the hotel with a lady.
- (transitive) To treat to lunch.
- 1906, H. G. Wells, The Future in America: A Search After Realities:
- We dined him, we lunched him, we were photographed in his company by flashlight.
Derived terms
editRelated terms
editTranslations
edit
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See also
editReferences
edit- ^ “lunch, n.2.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023.
Chinese
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editPronunciation
edit- Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)+
- Jyutping: lan1 cyu4 / lan1 cyu2
- Yale: lān chyùh / lān chyú
- Cantonese Pinyin: lan1 tsy4 / lan1 tsy2
- Guangdong Romanization: len1 qu4 / len1 qu2
- Sinological IPA (key): /lɐn⁵⁵ t͡sʰyː²¹/, /lɐn⁵⁵ t͡sʰyː³⁵/
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)+
Noun
editlunch
- (Hong Kong Cantonese) lunch (Classifier: 個/个 c; 餐 c)
Verb
editlunch
- (Hong Kong Cantonese) to eat lunch; to have lunch
Related terms
editDutch
editEtymology
editPronunciation
editNoun
editlunch m (plural lunchen or lunches, diminutive lunchje n)
Synonyms
editDerived terms
edit- lunchen (verb)
- lunchtafel m or f
- lunchtijd m
- lunchuur n
Related terms
editVerb
editlunch
- inflection of lunchen:
See also
editFrench
editEtymology
editPronunciation
editNoun
editlunch m (plural lunchs)
- a lunch, (usually light) meal around noon
- a light meal with sandwiches, cold cuts, pastry etc. served at a festive reception
Derived terms
edit- luncher (verb)
Further reading
edit- “lunch”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Polish
editEtymology
editUnadapted borrowing from English lunch.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editlunch m inan
- lunch (meal around midday)
Declension
editFurther reading
editSpanish
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editNoun
editlunch m (plural lunches)
Further reading
edit- “lunch”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10
Swedish
editEtymology
editPronunciation
editNoun
editlunch c
Declension
editRelated terms
editSee also
editReferences
edit- English terms suffixed with -ing
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ʌntʃ
- Rhymes:English/ʌntʃ/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Cricket
- American English
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- en:Meals
- Cantonese terms borrowed from English
- Cantonese terms derived from English
- Chinese lemmas
- Cantonese lemmas
- Chinese nouns
- Cantonese nouns
- Chinese verbs
- Cantonese verbs
- Chinese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Chinese terms written in foreign scripts
- Hong Kong Cantonese
- Chinese nouns classified by 個/个
- Chinese nouns classified by 餐
- Dutch terms borrowed from English
- Dutch terms derived from English
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio pronunciation
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -en
- Dutch nouns with plural in -es
- Dutch masculine nouns
- Dutch non-lemma forms
- Dutch verb forms
- French terms derived from English
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- Polish terms borrowed from English
- Polish unadapted borrowings from English
- Polish terms derived from English
- Polish 1-syllable words
- Polish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Polish terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Polish/ant͡ʂ
- Rhymes:Polish/ant͡ʂ/1 syllable
- Polish lemmas
- Polish nouns
- Polish masculine nouns
- Polish inanimate nouns
- pl:Meals
- Spanish terms borrowed from English
- Spanish terms derived from English
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish masculine nouns
- es:Meals
- Swedish terms derived from English
- Swedish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Swedish terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Swedish/ɵnɧ
- Rhymes:Swedish/ɵnɧ/1 syllable
- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish nouns
- Swedish common-gender nouns