Why is the first meal of the day called "breakfast"?
It is the friend of every morning, the first culinary moment of the day: how did "breakfast" get its name?
We're all familiar with this meal, which is widely adapted to different regions and tastes. It can be gourmet with bread and pastries fresh from the bakery, pragmatic with a simple coffee to wake you up, or healthy with some fresh fruit and 0% fromage frais. Everyone is free to interpret the first meal of the day. But have you ever wondered why we call it breakfast? In truth, it's a grey area that's easy to clear up.
A Latin origin distorted over time
For as long as the French language has existed, there has been a word for this meal. To understand the history of breakfast in more detail, we need to take the time machine back to the 16ᵉ and 17ᵉ centuries. In one country, under the reign of François Iᵉʳ, French became the official language one day in August 1539 at Villers-Cotterêts. Until then, Latin was the official language, and Christianity with it. Every day, the first meal was synonymous with breaking the fast, translated into one word: "disjejunare" (break the fast).In 1694, a century and a half after the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française defined the three sacrosanct French meals. "Disjejunare" is translated as "desjeuner", meaning: "meal eaten in the morning before dinner".
Confused? The order of meals has changed over the centuries. In the Hexagone - which wasn't exactly a Hexagone - of the 17ᵉ century, disner (dinner) was in fact the midday meal, while supper was reserved for the evening.
In the following century, the word clock turned, or at least shifted. Supper disappeared, replaced by dinner, and lunch shifted too, leaving the morning dew to join the mid-day meal. The reason? Aristocrats were getting up later and later, shifting the time of the first meal. The population as a whole wanted to use the same language, and so renamed the midday meal "lunch". But they don't have the luxury of getting up that late, so they have to find a way of renaming the first meal. The prefix "petit" was chosen to make the first meal of the day the breakfast we all know!
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René Meilleur, Gault&Millau d'Or 2025 for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region
A leading figure in Savoyard gastronomy, René Meilleur has shaped La Bouitte in Saint-Martin-de-Belleville since 1976. His commitment and talent have earned him the prestigious title of Gault&Millau d'Or 2025 in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
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