lunch

Etymology

Recorded since 1580; presumably short for luncheon, but earliest found also as lunshin, lunching, equivalent to lunch +‎ -ing, with the suffix -ing later modified to simulate a French origin. Lunch is possibly a variant of lump (as hunch is for hump, etc.), or represents an alteration of nuncheon, from Middle English nonechenche (“light mid-day 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”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lʌnt͡ʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌnt͡ʃ

Noun

lunch (countable and uncountable, plural lunches)

1. A light meal usually eaten around midday, notably when not as main meal of the day.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

     We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner.

2. (cricket) A break in play between the first and second sessions.
3. (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.

Verb

lunch (third-person singular simple present lunches, present participle lunching, simple past and past participle lunched)

1. (intransitive) To eat lunch.

   I like to lunch in Italian restaurants.

   • Cole Porter

     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.

2. (transitive) To treat to lunch.
   • H. G. Wells

     We dined him, we lunched him, we were photographed in his company by flashlight.

See also

• breakfast
• dine, dinner
• supper

Etymology

From English lunch.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

lunch m (plural lunchen or lunches, diminutive lunchje n)

1. A lunch, meal around noon

Verb

lunch

1. first-person singular present indicative of lunchen
2. imperative of lunchen

See also

• maaltijd
• ontbijt

Etymology

From English lunch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lœ̃ʃ/

Noun

lunch m (plural lunchs)

1. A lunch, (usually light) meal around noon
2. A light meal with sandwiches, cold cuts, pastry etc. served at a festive reception

Further reading

• “lunch” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Noun

lunch m (plural lunches)

1. lunch

Etymology

From English lunch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɵnɧ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

lunch c

1. a lunch, a meal eaten about noon

References

• lunch in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)