Tiffin

Tiffin is an Indian English word for a type of meal. It refers to a light tea-time meal at about 3pm, or to a light breakfast consisting of typical tea-time foods. In certain parts of India, it can also refer to the midday luncheon or, in some regions of the Indian subcontinent, a between meal snack,. When used in place of the word 'lunch', however, it does not necessarily mean a light meal. Tiffin is an Indian English word for a type of meal. It refers to a light tea-time meal at about 3pm, or to a light breakfast consisting of typical tea-time foods. In certain parts of India, it can also refer to the midday luncheon or, in some regions of the Indian subcontinent, a between meal snack,. When used in place of the word 'lunch', however, it does not necessarily mean a light meal. In the British Raj, tiffin was used to define the British custom of afternoon tea that had been supplanted by the Indian practice of having a light meal at that hour. It is derived from “tiffing”, an English colloquial or slang term meaning to take a little drink. By 1867 it had become naturalised among Anglo-Indians in northern British India to mean luncheon. In South India and in Nepal, tiffin is generally a snack between meals: dosas, idlis, vadas etc. In other parts of India, such as Mumbai, the word mostly refers to a packed lunch of some sort. In Mumbai, it is often delivered to them by dabbawalas, sometimes known as tiffin wallahs, who use a complex system to get thousands of Tiffin carriers to their destinations. In Mumbai, a school-going child's lunch box is fondly called a tiffin box. Tiffin often consists of rice, lentils, curry, vegetables, chapatis or 'spicy meats'. In addition, the lunch boxes are themselves called tiffin carriers, tiffin-boxes or just tiffins.