- Tiffin
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For other uses, see Tiffin (disambiguation).
Part of a series on Meals 
Common meals Breakfast · Brunch · Lunch · Tea · Dinner · Supper Components & courses Amuse-bouche · Appetizer · Cheese · Cocktails · Dessert · Drink · Entrée · Entremet · Fruit · Main course · Nuts · Salad · Side dish Related concepts Banquet · Buffet · Cuisine · Eating · Etiquette · Food · Global cuisines · Outline of cuisines · Snack Tiffin is lunch, or any light meal. It originated in British India, and is today found primarily in Indian English.[1] The word originated when Indian custom superseded the British practice of an afternoon tea, leading to a new word for the afternoon meal.[1] It is derived from the obsolete English slang tiffing, for "taking a little drink or sip".[2] When used for "lunch", it is not necessarily a light meal.[3]:88
In South India and in Nepal, the term is generally used for between-meals snacks: dosas, idlis, etc.[4] In other parts of India, such as Mumbai, the word mostly refers to a packed lunch of some sort, in particular to light lunches prepared for working Indian men by their wives after they have left for work, or for schoolchildren by their parents.[5] In Mumbai, it is often forwarded to them by dabbawalas, sometimes known as tiffin wallahs, who use a complex system to get thousands of tiffin-boxes to their destinations.[6] Tiffin often consists of rice, dal, curry, vegetables, chapatis or "spicy meats".[3]
In addition, the lunch boxes are themselves called tiffin carriers, tiffin-boxes or sometimes tiffins.
See also
References
- ^ a b Michael Quinion, World Wide Words: TIFFIN
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, tiffin
- ^ a b Sarah Murray (2008). Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat (illustrated ed.). Macmillan. pp. 85–108. ISBN 9780312428143. http://books.google.com/?id=HqcwO2JfNsAC&pg=PA85.
- ^ Martin Hughes; Sheema Mookherjee; Richard Delacy (2001). India (illustrated ed.). Lonely Planet. p. 25. ISBN 9781864503289. http://books.google.com/?id=XWXGIQG5fMMC&pg=PA25.
- ^ The Guardian. A Bombay lunchbox (June 24, 2002).
- ^ "Mumbai's amazing dabbawalas". Archived from the original on 2008-02-09. http://web.archive.org/web/20080209025804/http://www.sixsigmainstitute.com/news/sixsigma/2005/11/mumbais-amazing-dabbawalas.html.
External links
A foreigner's experience with an Indian police inspector wife's prepared tiffin
Categories:- Meals
- British English
- Indian cuisine
- Indian English idioms
- Indian slangs
- Indian cuisine stubs
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