Breaking the fast, one word or two

[Fat Guy]

At the end of a fast, such as my people just had on Yom Kippur, there is typically a festive meal. Some people I know call it "breakfast" and some call it a "break fast" -- the latter, I suppose, to distinguish it from the morning meal (which also derives from the notion of breaking a fast). So, when writing about something like a Yom Kippur fast-breaking meal, is it one word or two?

[andiesenji]

The Orthodox Jews that I know call it the Break Fast Meal. So I would say it's two words.

At one time I knew the Yiddish term but it has been many years since I heard or used it.

When I was young, prior to my marriage, I lived with an Orthodox family for almost two years.

I was their "Shabbos Goy" and was treated like one of their daughters.

I turned on the lights, lit the stove, opened and closed the fridge, did some cooking, ran errands delivered messages. I learned a great deal and enjoyed it immensely and when I got married they gave me a pile of gifts.

Edited October 9, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[liuzhou]

I don't see any confusion.

Breakfast clearly refers to the morning meal (albeit that it is derived from the notion of breaking the overnight fast).

A meal to end a true fast is understandable as a 'break fast meal', although a 'breaking fast meal' sounds more natural to me.

[Fat Guy]

Perhaps the confusion is entirely localized to me. But if you look in Merriam-Webster it says "first meal of the day," which, on a fast day, could be at night.

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[andiesenji]

Here's a link to an article where the usage is break-fast.

[Fat Guy]

If you search the Google news archives, you get 15 results for "Yom Kippur breakfast" and 25 results for "Yom Kippur break-fast" and "Yom Kippur break fast" combined (the space and hyphen seem to be treated the same by that search engine). Not sure what that says about anything. Just reporting it.

[BeeZee]

our family calls it "break the fast"...as used in a sentence: "are you coming to our house for break the fast?"

[threestars]

I guess most people uses the latter part term which is "break fast". Based on the search term results from Google.

[Mjx]

As a term, I'm used to hearing it (in this specific context, I mean) as 'breakfast'; can't think of any time I've seen it written, but would expect to see it/be inclined to write it as a single, unhyphenated word. I'm most accustomed to hearing this as a phrase (e.g. '...going to so-and-so's place to break the fast'.

[Kouign Aman]

I hear it as 'we're breaking the fast at so&sos'. So&so's invitation read 'breaking-the-fast meal'.

[Pam R]

We say "break fast". Two words.