What does dejeuner mean?
Déjeuner is a French noun that entered English as a borrowed term for the day's first or midday meal. Literally built from Latin elements meaning 'to break one's fast,' it corresponds most directly to English breakfast. In contemporary France, déjeuner typically denotes lunch, while breakfast is called petit déjeuner; however, in Belgium, Switzerland, and French-speaking Canada, déjeuner still means breakfast, preserving its older sense. English writers have long reached for the word when they want a touch of Continental elegance or period color, describing everything from a tray of coffee and rolls to an elaborate garden party meal. It also survives in cultural memory through art and literature, most famously Édouard Manet's 1863 painting Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe ('Luncheon on the Grass'), which depicts a picnic and helped fix the word in the international imagination.
nounDejeuner is a French loanword meaning breakfast, or more broadly a midday meal (lunch) in French usage. In English it appears mainly in literary, travel-writing, or deliberately Gallic contexts to refer to breakfast or an elegant morning meal.
- Breakfast (the first meal of the day), especially in French usage or when adopted into English.
- A midday meal or lunch, particularly in older or formal French usage.
"They lingered over a leisurely dejeuner on the hotel terrace before setting out for the market."
"A simple dejeuner of coffee and croissants was served at dawn."
"The novel's opening scene unfolds at a lavish dejeuner hosted by the countess."
As an anglicized noun, dejeuner takes a regular English plural; in French text the plural is déjeuners.
"The inn was known for the generous dejeuners it served to travelers."
The famous painting 'Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe' — Manet's scandalous picnic scene — made this everyday French word for 'breakfast' immortal in art history.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of dejeuner
Déjeuner derives from Old French des- (from Latin dis-, meaning apart or undoing) combined with jeûner, 'to fast,' which traces back through Vulgar Latin *ieiunare to Latin ieiunus, 'empty' or 'fasting.' The word thus means literally 'to un-fast' or 'break the fast.' It shares this root with related Romance forms such as Italian digiunare and Spanish ayunar, both meaning 'to fast,' and more distantly with English derivatives like juvenile and junior, which come from the same Latin family of words connected to iuvenis, 'young.'
How dejeuner is actually used
In English, dejeuner is rare and carries a consciously French, often elegant or whimsical flavor; ordinary speakers say breakfast or lunch. In French itself, déjeuner now usually means lunch in France (while petit déjeuner means breakfast), though in Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada déjeuner retains the older sense of breakfast. The word should be treated as italicized foreign vocabulary rather than fully naturalized English.
Easily confused with dejeuner
Dinner refers to the main meal of the day (typically evening in modern usage), whereas dejeuner denotes the French breakfast or midday meal.