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Jan 21, 2001 · Although not taught in American learning institutions and literature, it is noted in most Black history professional circles and literature that the origin of the term "picnic" derives from the...
Feb 19, 2019 · There is no evidence that the origin of the word traces back to lynchings of African-Americans. The word has French origins and refers to a gathering with food.
Nov 13, 2023 · Key Takeaways: The term “picnic” may have originated from the French word “pique-nique” or the phrase “pick-a-nick.” Picnics have a rich history dating back to ancient Greece and Rome, with Victorian-era Europe popularizing them as leisure activities.
By 1694 the word was listed in Gilles Ménage 's Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue françoise, with the meaning of a shared meal, with each guest paying for himself, but with no reference to eating outdoors. [2] It reached the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française in 1840 with the same meaning.
Aug 3, 2020 · 1748 (in Chesterfield's "Letters"), but the thing itself apparently was rare before c. 1800 as an English institution [OED]; it originally meant "a fashionable social affair (not necessarily out of doors) in which every partaker contributed something to the general table;" from French piquenique (1690s), perhaps a reduplication of piquer "to pic...
Jul 22, 2016 · MEANING. a meal eaten outdoors. ORIGIN. This word is from French pique-nique, probably formed with reduplication from the verb piquer, to pick. (Similarly, pêle-mêle, the origin of English pell-mell, was probably formed with reduplication from the verb mêler, to mix.)
Where the word ‘picnic’ comes from is something of a mystery. The French root may derive from the verb piquer (‘to peck’ or ‘to pick’) and the noun nique (‘a small amount’ or ‘nothing whatsoever’); but this is just speculation. What is certain, however, is that, originally, it did not refer to anything we would now recognise ...
