the.com/breakfast
The meal that ends the nightly fast, and the only one that brags about it in its name.
means The first meal of the day, eaten after the overnight stretch of not eating.
from Literally to break the fast — a compound that says exactly what it does, no metaphor required, dating to Middle English.
Linguistic siblingsSpanish desayuno and French dejeuner also mean un-fasting.
Late inventionRegular morning eating was rare before clocks and labor schedules.
Dinner driftDinner once meant the first big meal, sometimes at breakfast time.