What's interesting is that 'lunch' does not appear in The Hobbit at all ('lunchtime' is used once) - based on an overly quick skim. In FotR the word is used 8 times - 7 times by the narrator & once by Pippin. In TT it is used twice - once by Merry & once by Gimli:
Quote:
|
'No, I don't think so," Merry laughed. "But that is another story, which can wait until after lunch." "Well let us go and have lunch then!" said the Dwarf.
|
- though there one gets the sense that Gimli is 'mirroring' Merry's language, either out of politeness or friendly teasing - 'lunch' is hardly a Dwarvish term one feels.
In RotK it isn't used at all. Hence, a specifically middle-class term for the mid-day meal
* (arising, as I stated, in the early 19th Century), &, given the nature of Hobbit society, not one that would be in general usage - given the fact that Hobbits are based on rural English folk & that 'lunch' is not a word used by rural English folk.
* cf the Asparagus/'Sparrowgrass' thing - Asparagus is to Lunch what Sparrowgrass is to dinner. Or, in other words, Merry & Pippin would eat Asparagus for lunch, while Sam & the Gaffer would have Sparrowgrass for dinner. Or the bitter Nasturtians/Nasturtiums controversy.....