On a whim, I went looking for the word TIFFIN in Alexa.
Michael Quinion has this to say:
Tiffin is a word that perhaps more than any other evokes British India. It entered the language at the very beginning of the nineteenth century, perhaps because the fashion for eating dinner mid-afternoon was giving way to a main meal taken later in the day, requiring a lighter midday meal and a name for it.
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I’ve heard it said that tiffin (pronounced tiffun in India) is a corruption of “Tea Bun” – possibly a latter day etymological invention
The Merriam Websters Dictionary (www.m-w.com) online says
Etymology: probably alteration of tiffing, gerund of obsolete English tiff to eat between meals
Date: 1800
chiefly British : a light midday meal : LUNCHEON
and The Concise Oxford Dictionary says,
(in India) a light midday meal
19th century origin: apparently from dialect tiffing “sipping of”
I’ve heard it said that tiffin (pronounced tiffun in India) is a corruption of “Tea Bun” – possibly a latter day etymological invention
The Merriam Websters Dictionary (www.m-w.com) online says
Etymology: probably alteration of tiffing, gerund of obsolete English tiff to eat between meals
Date: 1800
chiefly British : a light midday meal : LUNCHEON
and The Concise Oxford Dictionary says,
(in India) a light midday meal
19th century origin: apparently from dialect tiffing “sipping of”
Satya
Thanks for that interesting comment. “Tea-Bun” certainly makes sense. Say it fast enough and repeatedly and it sure sounds like TIFFIN!
And, it’s not all that improbable that the origin of “tiffin” comes from “tea-bun” given that even today, in at least India, sweet chai and a bun (that deliciously sweet, fist-sized bread, just so slightly glazed and topped up with a dry cherry) is tiffin for millions of people.
Satya
Thanks for that interesting comment. “Tea-Bun” certainly makes sense. Say it fast enough and repeatedly and it sure sounds like TIFFIN!
And, it’s not all that improbable that the origin of “tiffin” comes from “tea-bun” given that even today, in at least India, sweet chai and a bun (that deliciously sweet, fist-sized bread, just so slightly glazed and topped up with a dry cherry) is tiffin for millions of people.