Brunch is a meal eaten between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., sometimes accompanied by

alcoholic drinks An alcoholic beverage (also called an alcoholic drink, adult beverage, or a drink) is a drink that contains ethanol, a type of alcohol that acts as a drug and is produced by fermentation of grains, fruits, or other sources of sugar. The cons ...

(typically

champagne Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, ...

or a cocktail). The meal originated in the British

hunt Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, e ...

breakfast. The word ''brunch'' is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsbreakfast'' and ''

lunch Lunch is a meal eaten around the middle of the day. It is commonly the second meal of the day, after breakfast, and varies in size by culture and region. Etymology According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED''), the etymology ...

''. The word originated in England in the late 19th century, and became popular in the United States in the 1930s.

Origin of the word

The 1896 supplement to the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

'' cites '' Punch'' magazine, which wrote that the term was coined in Britain in 1895 to describe a Sunday meal for "Saturday-night carousers" in the writer Guy Beringer's article "Brunch: A Plea" in ''Hunter's Weekly''. Despite the substantially later date, it has also been claimed that the term was possibly coined by reporter Frank Ward O'Malley, who wrote in the early 20th century for the New York newspaper '' The Sun'' from 1906 until 1919. It's thought that he may have come up with the term after observing the typical mid-day eating habits of his colleagues at the newspaper.

At colleges and hotels

Some

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

s and

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

s serve brunch, often serve-yourself

buffet A buffet can be either a sideboard (a flat-topped piece of furniture with cupboards and drawers, used for storing crockery, glasses, and table linen) or a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners serve ...

s, although menu-ordered meals may be available as well. The meal usually consists of standard breakfast foods such as

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

sausage A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders. ...

s, bacon,

ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term "ham ...

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

s, pastries, pancakes, waffles, and scones.

Military

The United States, Canada and United Kingdom militaries often serve weekend brunch in their messes. They offer breakfast and lunch options, and usually are open from 09:00-13:00.

Dim Sum brunch

The dim sum brunch is popular in Chinese restaurants worldwide. It consists of a variety of stuffed buns, dumplings, and other savory or sweet foods that have been steamed, deep-fried, or baked. Customers select small portions from passing carts, as the kitchen continuously produces and sends out freshly prepared dishes. Dim sum is usually eaten at a mid-morning, midday, or mid-afternoon teatime.

Special occasions

Brunch is prepared by restaurants and hotels for special occasions, such as weddings,

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, thr ...

, St. Patrick's Day,

Mother's Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in th ...

Father's Day Father's Day is a holiday of honoring fatherhood and paternal bonds, as well as the influence of fathers in society. In Catholic countries of Europe, it has been celebrated on 19 March as Saint Joseph's Day since the Middle Ages. In the Unite ...

, Halloween,

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

, New Year's and

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

In other languages

Chinese

The Chinese word "早午饭" ( zh, p=zǎo wǔfàn) is defined as brunch, with "早饭" ( zh, p=zǎofàn, labels=no; 早: morning, 饭: meal) meaning breakfast; and "午饭" ( zh, p=wǔfàn, labels=no; 午: noon, 饭: meal) meaning lunch. The combination of "早饭" and "午饭" is thus "早午饭", brunch.

French

The

Office québécois de la langue française The (, OQLF; en, Quebec Board of the French Language) is a public organization established on 24 March 1961, by the Quebec Liberal Party, Liberal government of Jean Lesage. Attached to the , its initial mission, defined in its report of 1 Apri ...

accepts 'brunch' as a valid word but also provides a synonym ''déjeuner-buffet''. Note that, however, in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, ''déjeuner'' alone (even without the qualifying adjective ''petit'') means 'breakfast'. In Quebec, the word—when francized—is pronounced .

Italian

In Italian, the English loanword 'brunch' is generally used, though the neologism/calque is increasingly popular, being derived from (breakfast) and (lunch). Even less common but occasionally used is , derived from the same sources. Usage of these terms varies in Italy, as different regions have different cultural definitions of mealtimes and their names. Traditional usage, particularly in northern Italy, included calling the first meal of the day (first ), and the second meal either or (second ), as distinguished from , the evening meal (now generally used as the term for the midday meal). In this scheme, a separate term for 'brunch' would not be necessary, as could be used as a general term for any meal taken in the morning or early afternoon. Although Italian meal terminologies have generally shifted since widespread use of this naming scheme, the concept of a distinct mid-morning meal combining features of breakfast and lunch is largely one imported from the UK and North America in the last century, so the Anglicism 'brunch' is predominant.

Other places

Canada

The area now known as

Leslieville Leslieville is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated east of the Don River. It is bounded by the Canadian National railway line and Gerrard Street to the north, McGee Street to the west, Eastern Avenue to south, and Coxwell Ave ...

neighbourhood is sometimes called the brunch capital of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, as many renowned establishments serve brunch there. Brunch buffets also exist in other parts of Southern Ontario, including Kitchener-Waterloo, where the German-term ''Smorgasborgs'' was sometimes used, from the 1970s onward. In Canada, brunch is served in private homes and in restaurants. In both cases, brunch typically consists of the same dishes as would be standard in an American brunch, namely,

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

, fruit juices, breakfast foods, including pancakes,

waffles A waffle is a dish made from leavened batter or dough that is cooked between two plates that are patterned to give a characteristic size, shape, and surface impression. There are many variations based on the type of waffle iron and recipe used ...

, and french toast; meats such as

, bacon, and

s; egg dishes such as

scrambled eggs Scrambled eggs is a dish made from eggs (usually chicken eggs) stirred, whipped or beaten together while being gently heated, typically with salt, butter, oil and sometimes other ingredients. Preparation Only eggs are necessary to make scramble ...

omelettes In cuisine, an omelette (also spelled omelet) is a dish made from beaten eggs, fried with butter or oil in a frying pan (without stirring as in scrambled egg). It is quite common for the omelette to be folded around fillings such as chives ...

, and

Eggs Benedict Eggs Benedict is a common American breakfast or brunch dish, consisting of two halves of an English muffin, each topped with Canadian bacon, a poached egg, and hollandaise sauce. It was popularized in New York City. Origin and history There a ...

; bread products, such as toast,

bagel A bagel ( yi, בײגל, translit=beygl; pl, bajgiel; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. It is traditionally shaped by hand into a roughly hand-sized ring from yeasted wheat dough that is first ...

s or

croissant A croissant is a buttery, flaky, Austrian viennoiserie pastry inspired by the shape of the Austrian kipferl but using the French yeast-leavened laminated dough. Croissants are named for their historical crescent shape, the dough is layered wi ...

s; pastries or cakes, such as cinnamon rolls and

coffee cake Coffee cake may refer to a sponge cake flavored with coffee or, in the United States, a sweet cake intended to be eaten with coffee or tea (similar to tea cake). A coffee-flavored cake is typically baked in a circular shape with two layers sep ...

; and fresh cut

fruit salad Fruit salad is a dish consisting of various kinds of fruit, sometimes served in a liquid, either their juices or a syrup. In different forms, fruit salad can be served as an appetizer or a side salad. When served as an appetizer, a fruit sala ...

. Brunches may also include foods not typically associated with breakfast, such as roasted meats, quiche, soup,

smoked salmon Smoked salmon is a preparation of salmon, typically a fillet that has been cured and hot or cold smoked. Due to its moderately high price, smoked salmon is considered a delicacy. Although the term lox is sometimes applied to smoked salmon, t ...

sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

es, and salads, such as Cobb salad. When served at home or in a restaurant, a brunch may be offered

style, in which trays of foods and beverages are available and guests may serve themselves and select the items they want, often in an "all-you-can-eat" fashion. Restaurant brunches may also be served from a menu, in which case guests select specific items that are served by waitstaff. Restaurant brunch meals range from relatively inexpensive brunches available at diners and

family restaurant Restaurants fall into several industry classifications, based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing, as well as the means by which the food is served to the customer. This article mainly describes the situation in the USA, while catego ...

s to expensive brunches served at high-end restaurants and bistros.

Philippines

Brunch in the Philippines is served between 9:00 am and noon. Contrary to what is observed in other countries, brunch in the afternoon, between 3:00 and 4:00 pm, is called merienda, a traditional snack carried over from Spanish colonialism.

Gallery

File:Brunch-Fahrten MS MARS.jpg, A brunch on a ship, Lake Constance, Germany File:Brunch orange juice toasts with eggs.jpg, A homemade brunch consisting of cooked eggs on toast and salad, accompanied by orange juice File:Fruits and Tarts -- Formal Brunch Aboard the Celebrity Equinox, 12-09-2011 (6857451879).jpg, A formal brunch buffet aboard the ''

Celebrity Equinox ''Celebrity Equinox'' is a built by Meyer Werft in Germany. ''Celebrity Equinox'' is the second of the five ''Solstice''-class vessels, owned and operated by Celebrity Cruises. She is a sister ship of , , , and the . ''Celebrity Equinox'' entere ...

'' File:Gourmet cheeseburgers for brunch.jpg, Cheeseburger as brunch File:Snack Counter at The Farm House.jpg, Coldcuts and cheeses with bread in a brunch buffet File:Monki's Huevos Rancheros with spiced rice, ground beef, spinach, mushrooms & tomatoes.jpg, ''

Huevos rancheros Huevos rancheros (, 'ranch-style eggs') is a breakfast dish consisting of eggs served in the style of the traditional large mid-morning fare on rural Mexican farms. Basic dish The basic dish consists of fried eggs served on lightly fried or cha ...

'' as brunch

References

External links

"The Birth of Brunch: Where Did This Meal Come From Anyway?" Smithsonian.comWikibooks Cookbook
{{Authority control Breakfast Meals 1890s neologisms