The word lunch is presumably short for the formal word luncheon. Luncheon originally meant “hunk of bread“, but came to be knowns as a midday meal. The word luncheon was first recorded in English around 1570, though it didn’t reach the form of its modern spelling until 1706.

In about 1755, lunch was simply “as much food as one’s hand can hold” (Samuel Johnson), and it was seen as a snack that you can have at any time of the day.

It wasn’t until later, around the 1850s, that lunch became an established fixture, as well as breakfast and dinner at set times of the day. Lunch took place between around noon and 2 pm. This is when cultural meals were assigned and introduced to this eating time.

The truth is that lunch is an urban invention: an original snack time that was changed to a meal time. Lunch started as a simple snack time that has become the third fixed meal of the day in society. This meal time has been industrialized and urbanized, and changed from a simple snacking hour to a whole property of meal.