The almost infinite variations and combinations of names for mealtimes, depending on location/class/content of meal must be one of the most difficult things for foreign learners of English to understand !

In England, for most social classes, "supper" used to be a snack you had before going to bed (e.g. biscuits and a cup of tea). I think it may have always meant something different to the upper classes (i.e. a light evening meal), but now the word seems to have gone down the social scale and to have become an *aspirational* word. I've noticed it seems to have become quite a trend around these 'ere parts of Essex for more people to use it for the evening meal, either when inviting someone to their house or for going out to eat, e.g. "Would you like to come over to us for supper on Tuesday ?" I can see why it has become so popular. "Supper" has come to mean a substantial but reasonably cheap evening meal from the chiller cabinet at Marks & Spencer, Waitrose et al, with french bread and wine thrown in. Or a meal out at somewhere like Cafe Rouge or Cafe Uno or Pizza Express (but not Pizza Hut !) Something slightly (but not much) more upmarket than what the people would be eating if they were alone at home (and most likely calling it "tea"). A little treat but without totally breaking the bank or your neck, in preparing it.

Invitations to "dinner" are another matter. The stuff may well STILL come ready from Waitrose, but from the top end of the price range, and you spend a while cunningly disguising it and make the table look a bit more posh and with more expensive wine.

Just my lovingly tongue-in-cheek observations of this geographical/social locale ;)

- jeanie