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by Indielauper on May 17th, 2007

Indielauper

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Where do you think the origin of the word "picnic" comes from?

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  • by faithfulvisions freebagger on May 17th, 2007

    faithfulvisions freebagger

    The word picnic is first recorded in English in the mid-eighteenth century. In its early use, the word did not refer to what we think of as a picnic, but rather to a fashionable (indoor) social gathering at which each person contributed something to the meal. A pot-luck, in other words.

    In the early nineteenth century, the word developed the sense that we basically use today: 'an excursion in which participants carry food with them and share a meal in the open air'. In quite recent use a picnic can be any informal meal eaten outdoors, with the meal, rather than the excursion, being the main point.

    Picnic is a borrowing from French pique-nique, possibly by way of German Pic-nic (modern Picknick). The French word is first recorded (in French) in the late seventeenth century. It is of uncertain origin, though we note that it is a reduplicated rhyming compound. It could possibly be based on piquer 'to pick; peck'.

    The suggestion that a picnic was a racist event wherein white people would go into the countryside to assault blacks, and that the word derives from a phrase such as pick a nigger, is absolutely and completely without merit. I'm not sure when this myth originated, but it seems to be very recent; I've been getting the occasional message about it for a year or two.

    Comments

    • You got the question right.

      Indielauper

      by Indielauper on May 17th, 2007

    • Not a myth. Almost got it right

      Indielauper

      by Indielauper on May 17th, 2007

    • Ok Ok close but not quite. The word picnic may have originated in france,But its meaning in America came from the slave trade. Actually, when the plantation owners and other slave traders went to see the new crop of newly enslaved Africans get off of the boat, they would go to the auctions to purchase new slaves. They would sometimes bring their entire family and make a day of it,bring along a basket filled with food to eat. They would pick the slaves they wanted to buy. These auctions would be held in an outdoor setting and people would sit on the grass. Only later after reconstruction did the meaning of this word change to include Lynchings.

      pmip

      by pmip on April 3rd, 2011

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