breakfast：打破一夜的“禁食”

Some words hide their meaning in Latin or Greek. "Breakfast" hides its meaning in plain sight. Look at it carefully, and you'll see that it's made of two ordinary English words: "break" and "fast". Here, "fast" doesn't mean "quick". It's the other meaning of "fast": to go without food, as many people do for religious reasons or before a medical test. When you sleep, you don't eat for many hours, so in a sense you are fasting all night. The first meal of the morning "breaks" that fast. That's why it's called breakfast. The word has been used in English since the 1400s. Before that, the main meal of the day in England, eaten around midday, was called "dinner". That word came from Old French, and it, too, originally meant something like "to break the fast". Over the centuries, dinner gradually moved later and later in the day, and "breakfast" became the name for the meal you eat when you get up. Even today, the names of meals can be confusing. In many parts of Britain, New Zealand and Australia, some people call the evening meal "tea", while others call it "dinner". Some people call the midday meal "lunch", and others call it "dinner" too. Ask a group of Kiwis what they call each meal, and you might start a friendly argument. And then there's "brunch": a mixture of breakfast and lunch, eaten late in the morning. The word was invented in Britain in the 1890s, and it's still a favourite weekend tradition in cafés all over the world.