Precise names for parts of a day
I have learnt these words so far, please correct me if I'm wrong:
- Dawn, maybe 4am–6am?
- Morning, maybe 6am–9am? The food for the morning is called breakfast. People greet each other Good morning!
- Noon, maybe 11am–1pm? The food is called lunch.
- Afternoon, maybe 2pm–4pm? People greet each other Good afternoon!
- Evening, maybe 6pm–9pm? The food for the evening is called dinner. People greet each other Good evening!
- Night, maybe 9pm–11pm? However, Good night means "have a good sleep". The meal during this time is called supper
- Mid-night, maybe 11pm–1am?
You see, I've missed some parts of a day, I may be not correct on the time boundaries of each part, though.
I would like to complete the list, especially the part after the morning but before the afternoon. My teacher never told us to use the word noon, and good noon seems never used by anyone.
I would like to know each part of a day, its corresponding food term (like lunch, supper, etc.), and its corresponding greeting words, thanks.
Summary
I'll update the table to reflect the answers:
Part Begin End Meal Greeting
------------- ----- ----- ---------------- ---------------------
morning/dawn 0:00 5:00
early morning 5:00 6:00 Good morning
morning 6:00 9:00 breakfast Good morning
mid-morning 9:00 11:59 elevenses/ Good morning
morning tea/
brunch
noon 12:00 12:00 -
afternoon 12:00 17:00 lunch/ Good afternoon
afternoon tea
evening 17:00 21:00 dinner Good evening
night 21:00 23:00 supper Good evening
midnight 23:00 1:00 midnight snack Good night
Solution 1:
Times:
Dawn refers to the time around the actual solar event that is sunrise.
Morning refers to any time before noon, so 1am is still the morning.
Very early morning is sometimes known as "the small hours" (or any regional variant of those words). The actual time is variable, although you will probably provoke a laugh from working people if you refer to any time after 7am in that way (and probably any time after 6am).
Noon refers to 12pm (exact midday) and the time just around it. 1101 is not noon.
Afternoon refers to the time after Noon and before the Night. "Good afternoon" is only used after noon.
Dusk corresponds to dawn, and refers to the event of the sun setting.
Evening is variable in its usage, and is tied both to work schedules and the solar time. It's pretty much always correct to refer to the part of the day when the light begins to wane as "evening".
Night refers to the time after sunset. Accordingly, it can be both morning and night (this being pretty much the definition of the small hours).
Midnight refers to exactly 0000/2400 hours, and the time just around it. 2301 is not midnight.
"Good night" does not mean "have a good sleep". It is used as a farewell when it is late, whether anyone is planning on going home or not.
Meals:
Lunch is a meal taken between breakfast and the evening meal (howsoever called). It is not tied to any specific time beyond that.
The main evening meal may be called "dinner", "supper", or "tea" depending on regional dialect and class. "Dinner" is probably the most neutral option in most dialects (although in some dialects it means the main meal of the day even if that was lunch, or it may mean something else). If a second evening meal is taken, or a very late evening meal is taken, it might be called supper in distinction to dinner. This is not so common any longer.
"Afternoon tea" is a specific meal. Its defining feature is not really that it is taken in the afternoon, but rather the elements it is composed of: it will be a short snack, usually of tea or coffee and a sweet or savory baked good. "Morning tea" is the corresponding snack in the morning.
We are not "fixing" you, because you are not broken. We are correcting you in so far as we think you are wrong.
Solution 2:
In my (northern US) dialect: the first meal of the day is called breakfast; the second meal of the day is called lunch (if it is a light meal) or dinner (if it is a heavy meal); the third meal of the day is called supper (if it is a light meal) or dinner (if it is a heavy meal).
In rural areas, the heavy meal is likely to be around noon; in urban areas, the heavy meal is likely to be early evening (except that on Sunday it may be early afternoon).
If the first and second meals are combined, they are called brunch (but commonly
brunch is only on a weekend, and even so people are more likely to just call
it a big breakfast, after which they "skip" lunch). Brunch feels like an
artificial word. It's good to understand, but not to use.
Any other food is called a snack, and it is usually very light (like a piece of fruit, or a cookie).
The actual times of the meals is not as important as whether they're first or second or third, and light or heavy.
If someone eats only one or two meals in a day, there are no ready-made names. Probably we would name a meal breakfast, lunch, dinner, or supper depending on what it looks like and what time of day it is.
We don't use the word tea for a meal, just for the beverage.
As for time of day, my dialect has two sets of word. One refers to the clock and one refers to the sky.
The set of words that refers to the clock is: midnight (exactly 12:00 am), morning (from 12:01 am to 11:59 am), noon (exactly 12:00 pm), afternoon (from 12:01 pm to 6:00 pm), evening (from 6:00 pm to 11:59 pm).
The set of words that refers to the sky is: dawn (sky is getting light), sunrise (exactly when the sun is first visible), day or daytime (between sunrise and sunset), sunset (exactly when the sun is last visible), dusk (sky is getting dark), night or nighttime (sky is dark).
There is a slight tendency to use clock words when we are inside, and sky words when we are outside.
In my dialect, our greeting and parting words are:
between midnight and noon, we say good morning (or hello), and goodbye;
between noon and 6 pm, we say good afternoon (or hello), and goodbye;
between 6 pm and midnight, we say good evening (or hello), and goodbye (or good evening, if early evening, or good night, if late evening).
Another use of good night is when saying "sleep well" to someone when the lights are turned off for sleep.