dessert is a course of a meal

if consumed outside a meal, its a snack.

its all about context.

I agree with others in that it's a course and part of a meal.

But when eaten alone, snacks are snacks or meals according to size. If it's something small that won't even fill a third of your appetite, in my books, that's a snack. And in my books, precisely because of scarcity reasons you have less leveraging power to demand tax on a snack.

I'll never forget the my second grade teacher, Mrs Tilley, taught us the mnemonic "you only want one desert and two desserts."

Thanks, ma'am. It serves me still.

Why are snacks shared but meals are not?

Does this look like a mere mortal snack to you?

This thing has the might to send you to sleep for days.