{{Short description|Phase of a meal}} {{About|the meal component|the Bee Gees album|Main Course}} {{refimprove|date=January 2026}} {{Meals}}
A '''main course''' is the featured or primary dish in a meal consisting of several courses. The nature of what qualifies as a main course, and how and when it is served, varies cross-culturally. In the "Classical Order" of {{lang|fr|service à la française}}, the main course generally follows the entrée ({{literally|entry}}) course.
==Usage== In the United States and some parts of Canada the main course is traditionally called an "'''entrée'''".<ref>{{cite dictionary|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/entree_1|encyclopedia=Cambridge Dictionary|entry=entrée|title=ENTRÉE | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary}}</ref><ref name="etiquette">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9TL8PFlYRkUC&q=entree+main+course&pg=PA99 | title=Commonsense Etiquette: A Guide to Gracious, Simple Manners for the Twenty-First Century | year=1999 | author=Stewart, Marjabelle Young and Elizabeth Lawrence | publisher=St. Martin's Press | page=99| isbn=9780312242947 }}</ref><ref name=Porzucki>{{Cite web |last=Porzucki |first=Nina |date=22 September 2014 |title=You are what you eat—and how you translate the menu |url=https://theworld.org/stories/2014-09-22/sure-you-are-what-you-eatbut-youre-also-how-you-translate-menu |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230513033144/https://theworld.org/stories/2014-09-22/sure-you-are-what-you-eatbut-youre-also-how-you-translate-menu |archive-date=13 May 2023 |access-date=2024-03-11 |website=The World from PRX |language=en}}</ref> The modern French use of the term entrée refers to a dish served before the main course.
According to linguist Dan Jurafsky, North American usage ("entrée") comes from the original French meaning of the first of many meat courses.<ref name=Porzucki/> The first written use of the term 'entree' was in Petit traicté, which was published by Pierre Sargent in Paris between 1534 and 1536. In this book, the first course of the whole meal was named 'entree de table'.
==See also== {{Portal|Food}} * Full course dinner
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite book |title=The Main Course |last=Vergé |first=Roger |year=1996 |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |isbn=0-297-83638-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K7L2GwAACAAJ&q=main+course |access-date=May 25, 2017}}
==External links== * [http://wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook Wikibooks Cookbook]
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Category:Food and drink terminology Category:Courses (food)
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