Etymology: < dine v. Compare earlier dinner n., and also dining n.Perhaps compare also Middle French dinée, disnée meal (early 13th cent. in Old French; French dînée).

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman deiner, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French diner, disner, digner (French dîner ) to eat the first meal of the day, to breakfast (early 12th cent.), to feed (a person or animal) (late 13th cent. in Anglo-Norman with reference to a falcon, first half of the 15th cent. in continental French with reference to people), to eat a meal at midday (early 16th cent.; a1747 in sense ‘to eat the evening meal’) < an unattested post-classical Latin form *disiunare , variant (with elision of a medial syllable) of disieiunare to break one's fast, eat a meal (11th cent. with reference to a meal taken at midday) < classical Latin dis- dis- prefix + post-classical Latin ieiunare to fast (see jejunation n.).Parallels in foreign languages. Compare Old Occitan dinar (also dignar , disnar ), Catalan dinar (late 12th cent.), and also Italian †desinare (late 13th cent.; also †desnare , †disinare , †disnare ; < French), post-classical Latin disnare (c900 in a French glossarial source; from 11th cent. in contextual sources), dinare (13th cent. in a British source). Compare also Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French desjuner , French déjeuner to breakfast (see déjeuner n.), a learned doublet of dîner . Sense development. The semantic development in French, and hence in English, from ‘to breakfast’ to ‘to eat dinner’ (i.e. at a later time in the day), apparently reflects a change in eating habits whereby the time of the first (or first substantial) meal of the day gradually became later. Through practical necessity, especially for those involved in manual labour, a light breakfast in the morning came to be introduced, while the verb continued to be associated with the substantial meal eaten at midday or later. On later variation, especially between reference to eating a meal at midday or in the evening, compare the note at dinner n. 1, although as a result of semantic narrowing of the verb (see sense 1) the verb and noun have become less closely linked for most speakers in later use, with the verb now primarily carrying connotations of formality. Specific phrases. In to dine with Duke Humphrey at Phrases 1 apparently with allusion to Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester (1390–1447), the youngest son of Henry IV, later nicknamed ‘Good Duke Humphrey’. In the 17th cent. the phrase was associated with St Paul's in London, although the details of the association are explained in somewhat different ways by Stowe, Nares, and Fuller. Supposedly, it had been reported on Humphrey's death that a monument would be erected to him in St Paul’s (although in fact he was in fact buried in St Albans). It is reported that a different tomb in St Paul's was popularly identified as that of Duke Humfrey, and that the idiom arose that those in difficulties or straitened circumstances would ‘dine with Duke Humphrey’ that day. For other variants of the phrase (not employing the word dine ), compare:1597 Bp. J. Hall Virgidemiarum: 1st 3 Bks. iii. vii. 64 Trow'st thou where he din'd to day: In sooth I saw him sit with Duke Humfray.1633 Match at Mid-night ii. sig. D Are they none of Duke Humfreyes furies, doe you thinke, that they devis'd this plot in Pauls to get a dinner?1639 J. Mayne Citye Match iii. iii, in W. C. Hazlitt Dodsley's Sel. Coll. Old Eng. Plays (1875) XIII. 264 Your penurious father, who was wont To walk his dinner out in Pauls..Yes, he was there As constant as Duke Humphrey.1693 Humours & Conversat. Town 29 To make the World think he has been at a good Meal, when Duke Humphrey was his Host.1858 T. P. Thompson Audi Alteram Partem (1859) II. lxxviii. 33 To turn them all over to Duke Humphrey's mess.The Scottish equivalent, to dine with St. Giles and the Earl of Murray at Phrases 1, appears to allude to James Stewart, first earl of Moray (c1531–70), regent of Scotland, who was interred in St Giles' Kirk, Edinburgh.