Tiffin is a

South Asian English South Asian English, informally Desi English, refers to English dialects spoken in most modern-day South Asian countries, inherited from British English dialect. Also known as Anglo-Indian English during the British Raj, the English language was i ...

word for a type of meal. It refers to a light breakfast or a light tea-time meal at about 3 p.m., consisting of typical tea-time foods. In certain parts of India, it can also refer to the midday

luncheon Lunch is a meal typically consumed around the middle of the day, following breakfast and preceding dinner. It varies in form, size, and significance across cultures and historical periods. In some societies, lunch constitutes the main mea ...

or, in some regions of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

, a between-meal

snack A snack is a small portion of Human food, food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including Food packaging, packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at ho ...

. When used in place of the word "lunch", however, it does not necessarily mean a light meal.

Etymology

In the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

, tiffin was used to denote the British custom of

afternoon tea Tea is an umbrella term for several different meals consisting of food accompanied by tea to drink. The English writer Isabella Beeton, whose books on home economics were widely read in the 19th century, describes meals of various kinds an ...

that had been supplanted by the Indian practice of having a light meal at that hour. It is derived from "tiffing", an English colloquial term meaning to take a little drink. By 1867 it had become naturalised among

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority group, minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Angl ...

s in northern British India to mean luncheon.cites H. Wedgwood (1862) "''Tiffin'', now naturalised among Anglo-Indians in the sense of luncheon, is the North country tiffing (properly sipping)". See also .

Current usage

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

and in Nepal, tiffin is generally a snack between meals:

dosa Dosa may refer to: Belief * Dosa or dvesha, a Buddhist concept of hate or aversion People * Bogoljub Mitić Đoša (1968 - 2017), Serbian actor * Csaba Dosa (born 1951), Romanian athlete * Dosa ben Harkinas, Jewish Tanna sage * Dosa ben S ...

idli Idli, iddena, iddali or idly (; plural: idlis) is a type of savoury rice cake, originating from South India, popular as a breakfast food in Southern India and in Sri Lanka. The cakes are made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented de-h ...

s, vadas etc. In other parts of India, such as

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, the word mostly refers to a

packed lunch A packed lunch (also called pack lunch, sack lunch or brown-bag lunch in North America) is a lunch which is prepared before arriving at the place where it is to be eaten. Typically, it is prepared at home or at a hotel, or produced commerciall ...

of some sort. In Mumbai, it is often delivered to them by

dabbawala A dabbawala (also spelled dabbawalla or dabbawallah, called tiffin wallah in older sources) is a worker who delivers hot lunches from homes and restaurants to people at work in India, especially in Mumbai. The dabbawalas constitute a Tiffin car ...

s, sometimes known as ''tiffin wallahs'', who use a complex system to get thousands of

tiffin carrier Tiffin carriers or dabbas are a kind of lunch box used widely in Asia and the Caribbean for tiffin meals. From India, they spread to Malaysia and Singapore and to Trinidad and Tobago. In the Indian city of Mumbai, there is a complex and efficie ...

s to their destinations. In most of India, a school-going child's lunch box is fondly called a tiffin box. It is also used heavily in Pakistan where people use tiffin boxes in places like offices, schools or during picnic. This practice is also common in India. When used in place of the word "lunch", tiffin often consists of rice,

lentils The lentil (''Vicia lens'' or ''Lens culinaris'') is an annual plant, annual legume grown for its Lens (geometry), lens-shaped edible seeds or ''pulses'', also called ''lentils''. It is about tall, and the seeds grow in Legume, pods, usually w ...

curry Curry is a dish with a sauce or gravy seasoned with spices, mainly derived from the interchange of Indian cuisine with European taste in food, starting with the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and British, and then thoroughly internatio ...

, vegetables,

chapati Chapati (alternatively spelled chapathi; pronounced as IAST: ), also known as ''roti'', ''rooti'', ''rotee'', ''rotli'', '' rotta'', ''safati'', ''shabaati'', ''phulka'', ''chapo'' (in East Africa), ''sada roti'' (in the Caribbean), ''poli'' (i ...

s or "spicy meats". In addition, the

lunch box A lunch box (or lunchbox) is a hand-held container used to transport food, usually to work or to school. It is commonly made of metal or plastic, is reasonably airtight and often has a handle for carrying. In the United States In the Unit ...

es are themselves called

s, tiffin-boxes or just tiffins.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * {{Meals navbox, state=collapsed Meals Indian cuisine Indian English idioms Indian slang