Where Does Lunch Come From? | QI

This clip is from QI Series L, Episode 3, 'Literature' with Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Victoria Coren Mitchell, Lloyd Langford and Jack Whitehall.

[Cimlite]

This is like Thunderdome - Two brainiacs enter. One brainiac leaves. _Then the other one also leaves, but is slightly miffed that they might not have been correct about something._

[MLeoDaalder]

This is almost one of those "Mom, Dad, please stop fighting" moments. XD

[artistjoh]

I can understand the confusion because the Oxford Shorter Dictionary defines 'luncheon' as an extension of lunch in the same way that trunch was extended to truncheon, and yet when going to the definition of 'lunch' we are told that it is an abbreviation of luncheon. Both word origins cannot be correct, but even the editors of the Oxford Shorter feel compelled to have a bet both ways, and hope like heck that no one decides to compare the two entries and notice the inconsistency.

[coasternut]

I remember once when Stephen and Rory McGrath had a disagreement I didn't give a shit. With this one, I do care because Victoria is interesting and bringing the facts that she uncovered. She's not just saying "I'm right, you're wrong"

[mikdavies]

I don't think I've seen Victoria quite so animated!

[youremakingprogress]

I have such a crush on Victoria Coren Mitchell. I love how she doesn't back down from her position AND she's funny.

[gnack]

Fry, as much as I love him, is just reading stuff that other people wrote for him. Coren is right.

[saltech]

I am writing a novel about the Battle of Chaeronea, and as part of it I trawled through obscure fragments of Greek tragedies and comedies that nobody has heard of, so as to find quotes that weren't just from surviving authors. I was reminded of this QI scene quite a lot, because apparently one of the tropes of Greek comedies was people describing ludicrously complicated recipes that sound really delicious. The insane recipe in Aristophanes was probably just a comedy trope of the time.

[davidconnell]

This little clip is five of my favorite people all at once. Never saw the original show, now I need to find it!

[slake]

Susie Dent says Lunch came first. I will believe the world's foremost lexicographer over a program that has to admit it's facts are sometimes wrong.

[Altinget]

Maybe there is a connection to the Danish word "luns" means "what you can bite on and tear off some bigger item" (usually food). So you can have a luns of bread, meat or cheeese for example.

[sayakchakraborty]

Just to beat boredom, I had memorised that made-up Greek word during a summer holiday around the age of 12. It was in an obscure book of records published in the 1970s. I didn't have the pronunciations correct back then, but got the order of the letters intact. My friends at school used to be amazed and we used to have a jolly good laugh. 😂 I still have that word memorised at 30.

[rikmoran]

Important to remember that QI is sometimes wrong. Additionally, ‘facts’ get revised at later dates when additional information has been gathered. I would tend to trust Victoria on this one rather than the QI researchers.

[Edie]

Jack is so quick-witted in this clip that one can see why his style brought the good laughs.

[paulcollyer]

I have to say that etymology is an inexact science, sometimes with multiple theories, and no specific proofs

[zetectic]

The meal after breakfast is Dinner that's why they were called Dinner-ladies at school. Luncheon is for posh types who don't have to rush back to work. You then have afternoon tea, high tea and evening meal or supper.

[CatholicSatan]

QI is wrong here and Victoria is right. _Lunch_ originally, was a northern dialect word in the mid 16th century meaning a hunk of bread or cheese, usually consumed at midday. This got corrupted to _lunchen_ or _lunchin_ meaning the midday meal and later got merged into the word _nuncheon_ (which was the word for a light meal and/or drink taken around midday) a century later producing _luncheon._

[supplican]

Let’s just pause and appreciate that Alan knew of Aristophanes, AND that he was a comic playwright.

[Galvantez]

It's neat that even such a common word's etymology is not fully understood, or is at least debatable.

[billdyke]

When I was small the midday meal was dinner and the early evening one tea. Still are to my old mum. Saved all manner of arguments. Trunch is a village in Norfolk where an hour feels like an eon... (909 people are now out to get me.... Uh-oh... 🙊)