n. — Newfoundland, rare and archaic
a snack eaten between meals or before bedtime.
Type: 2. Preservation — The term lunch refers to a light meal or snack taken either late in the evening (see the 1917 quotation and the 1972 quotations) or between meals (see DNE, s.v. "lunch" (1) and (2)); this sense of lunch differs from the common meaning 'the meal eaten in the middle of the day' between breakfast and dinner (see COD-2, s.v. "lunch" (1)). Examples of popular items consumed for the traditional Newfoundland type of lunch include cheese, bread, raisin buns and molasses cake (see the 1990 and 1970 quotations). It is possible that the meaning of lunch as a 'a light meal eaten at any time' (see Gage-5, s.v. "lunch" (2)) derives from an obsolete meaning, which is 'a piece, a thick piece; a hunch or hunk' (see OED-3, s.v. "lunch" (n2)(1)); fittingly, DARE compares lunch, or 'a light meal or snack taken at any time', with the term "piece" (see DARE, s.v. "lunch" (1)). Thus, a "lunch" or '
"piece" of something was considered a light meal or snack (see the 1996 quotation).
The word lunch is a preservation from British English, defined in EDD (s.v. "lunch" (2a)) as 'a light repast between meals, especially between dinner and supper'. A derivation from British English coincides with Newfoundland's settlement history, as many people from southwest counties of England immigrated to the province in the 18th and 19th centuries (Clarke 2010b: 7).
Lunch is documented as an example of semantic retention in Newfoundland and Labrador English, as it is documented as the earlier meaning (Clarke 2010b: 105). Clarke notes (2010b: 104), however, that retention of particular senses are not necessarily unique to Newfoundland English. Accordingly, this sense of lunch is attested in US sources (as DARE, s.v. "lunch" (1) and DAE, s.v. "lunch" (1c), clearly show).
See also DNE, s.v. lunch (1, 2).