brunch orig. University slang.
(brʌntʃ)
[A ‘portmanteau’ word f. breakfast and lunch.]
A single meal taken late in the morning and intended to combine breakfast with lunch.
| 1896 Punch 1 Aug. 58/2 To be fashionable nowadays we must ‘brunch’. Truly an excellent portmanteau word, introduced, by the way, last year, by Mr. Guy Beringer, in the now defunct Hunter's Weekly, and indicating a combined breakfast and lunch. 1900 G. Swift Somerley 93 Brunches (i.e. breakfast-cum-lunch). 1900 Westm. Gaz. 19 Dec. 2/3 Perish Scrambling breakfast, formal lunch! Hardened night-birds fondly cherish All the subtle charms of ‘brunch’. 1924 Blackw. Mag. Apr. 465/1 We proposed to have a substantial ‘brunch’ at eleven. 1941 in Mencken Amer. Lang. (1963) vi. iv. 316 Sunday strollers' brunch, $1 per person, served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 1967 Boston Sunday Herald Mag. 26 Mar. 8/2 Easter is the day when more fashion marches forth..to brunches and to egg hunts. |
b. attrib., as brunch-bar; brunch coat, a woman's short house-coat.
| 1942 N.Y. Times 24 May 31 (Advt.), A brunch coat that's indispensable in the Summertime. 1959 Vogue Pattern. Bk. June-July 50 Good companion to the nightgown: short brunchcoat or dressing gown to make in a plain poplin. 1960 V. Packard Status Seekers II. v. 62 A split-level house on Long Island became ‘a Georgian split, with a bi-level brunch bar in a maître d' kitchen’. 1966 Observer 13 Feb. (Suppl.) 28/1 Brunchbars (Have a bean-burger?) have made their appearance. |
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Add: Hence brunch v. intr., to eat brunch.
| 1938 Time 21 Nov. 12/1 He likes to sleep until 11 a.m., then brunches, sees visitors, plays squash. 1966 D. Skirrow It won't get you Anywhere l. 249 We sat in the window and brunched. 1985 A. Blond Book Book i. 14, I brunched with him over a smoked salmon omelette. |