Anyone who cannot make it for the meal is welcome to come for the dancing, etc.

[kadioguy]

etc.
(also &c.)

ADVERB

‘Anyone who cannot make it for the meal is welcome to come for the dancing, etc., afterwards.’

​https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/etc.

What does this example sentence mean?

 

[Rover_KE]

Besides the dancing, there will be other things provided — like drinks, supper, speeches and toasts.

 

[kadioguy]

Besides the dancing, there will be other things provided — like drinks, supper, speeches and toasts.

supper
n.
the last meal of the day, either a main meal, usually smaller and less formal than dinner, or a snack eaten before you go to bed
------------
Does 'supper' in your sentence mean 'a snack eaten before you go to bed'? (Because there has been a meal before.)

 

[GoesStation]

supper
n.
the last meal of the day, either a main meal, usually smaller and less formal than dinner, or a snack eaten before you go to bed
------------
Does 'supper' in your sentence mean 'a snack eaten before you go to bed'? (Because there has been a meal before.)

Names of meals vary by region. In my area, supper is generally an alternate name for the evening meal more commonly called dinner. It would be eaten around six or seven p.m.

Some families have their main Sunday meal around noon and call it Sunday dinner. In such families, the only name for the Sunday evening light meal is supper. I don't know how widespread this practice is even in my own region.

 

[emsr2d2]

As a child in southern England in the 1970s, I had breakfast before going to school, lunch at school at around 12.30pm (although, confusingly, this meal was always referred to as "school dinner" and the people who served it were "dinnerladies") and dinner at home in the evening. However, if I wanted a friend to come home from school with me and eat with us in the evening, I would always ask "Mum/Dad, can Helen come home for tea?" I always found that a bit odd because we never otherwise referred to that meal as anything other than dinner (except on some Sundays - see below).

However (again!), Sundays were a bit different. The large meal of meat, roast potatoes, vegetables, gravy etc served at about 1pm was referred to as either Sunday lunch or Sunday dinner, or Sunday roast.
When my grandparents came to visit on a Sunday, we wouldn't have that large meal, but we would have what we called Sunday tea. This invariably consisted of egg sandwiches, buttered crumpets, a Victoria sponge cake and lots of tea. It was eaten between about 4.30pm and 6pm. We would never have called that dinner even though it was the last meal of the day.

In my house, we didn't refer to anything as supper. If we ate anything after the evening meal but before bed, it was just called an evening snack.

There are lots of regional variations on these and, as you can see from my response and Piscean's, even variations within the same region.

 

[jutfrank]

As a child in southern England in the 1970s, I had breakfast before going to school, lunch at school at around 12.30pm (although, confusingly, this meal was always referred to as "school dinner" and the people who served it were "dinnerladies") and dinner at home in the evening. However, if I wanted a friend to come home from school with me and eat with us in the evening, I would always ask "Mum/Dad, can Helen come home for tea?" I always found that a bit odd because we never otherwise referred to that meal as anything other than dinner (except on some Sundays - see below).

However (again!), Sundays were a bit different. The large meal of meat, roast potatoes, vegetables, gravy etc served at about 1pm was referred to as either Sunday lunch or Sunday dinner, or Sunday roast.

In my house, we didn't refer to anything as supper. If we ate anything after the evening meal but before bed, it was just called an evening snack.

Ditto!

 

[jutfrank]

dripping and a pickled onion

Kids these days don't realise what they're missing.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Besides the dancing, there will be other things provided — like drinks, supper, speeches and toasts.

Good explanation, but I might not include supper in the list, since the line is about people who can't make it for the meal.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

K -

Please notice the poor usage of etc. The writer should have found a better phrase, like "and other festivities."

The term etc. is mainly used by people who are too impatient to complete their thoughts.

 

[kadioguy]

Besides the dancing, there will be other things provided — like drinks, supper, speeches and toasts.

So I think we have to wait for Rover_KE, the original poster, to see his/her response.

 

[Matthew Wai]

In my city, 'supper' means 'a main meal eaten in the evening'—quoted from Cambridge.

 

[Tarheel]

So I think we have to wait for Rover_KE, the original poster, to see his/her response.

You are the original poster, and there can be only one of those per thread.

 

[Rover_KE]

Where I live, a festive evening such as you mentioned in the OP usually includes this kind of supper:

any light evening meal, esp. one taken late in the evening:

a buffet supper; a potato pie supper

(Collins)

 

[kadioguy]

Where I live, a festive evening such as you mentioned in the OP usually includes this kind of supper:

(Collins)

Actually it is from Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Evening+meal