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Etymology. A picnic party assembling in Columbus, Ohio, c. 1950. The word comes from the French pique-nique. [4] . However, it may also have been borrowed from the German word Picknick, [5] which was itself borrowed from French. [6]
Aug 3, 2020 · 1500s, earlier haliday (c. 1200), from Old English haligdæg "holy day, consecrated day, religious anniversary; Sabbath," from halig "holy" (see holy) + dæg "day" (see day); in 14c. meaning both "religious festival" and "day of exemption from labor and recreation," but pronunciati
Jul 7, 2019 · 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 ...
Sep 12, 2023 · The English word picnic ultimately comes from the French pique-nique, although it may have come via German. The French word originally referred to a meal where everyone paid for or contributed their share of the food, but later came to mean a meal eaten outdoors. The pique comes from the verb piquer, to stick or sting, to bite like an insect.
Nov 13, 2023 · The word picnic derives from the 17th-century French term “pique-nique,” which referred to a social gathering where attendees each contributed with a portion of food or another useful item. The term picnic did not appear in the English language until around 1800, but it did not originate in the United States.
Jul 23, 2022 · Etymonline claims that the word picnic comes from the French word "piquenique," which in turn might be a smashing together of "piquer" and "nique" or "to pick up a worthless thing." The idea is...
The earliest known use of the word picnic is in the mid 1700s. OED's earliest evidence for picnic is from 1748, in a letter by Philip Stanhope, politician and diplomatist. picnic is of multiple origins. A borrowing from French. Perhaps also partly a borrowing from German. Etymons: French pique-nique; German Picknick. See etymology.
