A breakfast-and-lunch blend with dictionary first-use dates that differ by a year.
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The sequence below summarizes the cited forms, dates and evidence. It is not a complete scholarly history.
Brunch is usually explained as a blend of breakfast and lunch. The exact first recorded year differs by source: Merriam-Webster lists 1895, while the Online Etymology Dictionary lists 1896 and recounts a Punch report tying the word to Guy Beringer.
This page summarizes the cited sources. Follow each source for its full wording, notes and references.
Word-specific details from cited sources, with sources named beside each claim.
Merriam-Webster describes brunch as a blend of breakfast and lunch and lists 1895 as the first known use.
The Online Etymology Dictionary lists 1896 and recounts a 1 August 1896 Punch item saying brunch had been introduced the previous year by Guy Beringer; that attribution comes from the Punch report rather than independently proven coinage.
Punch contrasts brunch and blunch by Oxford meal timing, as recounted in the Online Etymology Dictionary entry.
The 1895 and 1896 difference is source-scoped: Merriam-Webster and the Online Etymology Dictionary give different first-use dates, and neither date is presented as a proven coinage date.
Brunch is treated as a blend of breakfast and lunch. Portmanteau words: how English blends two words into one
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