Specious etymologies seem to be all the rage of late, and this wild claim about picnic fits that trend. Youll be heartened to know picnic has nothing to do with lynching blacks (or anyone else, for that matter). Picnic began life as a 17th-century French word — it wasnt even close to being an American invention. A 1692 edition of Origines de la Langue Françoise de Ménage mentions piquenique as being of recent origin and marks the first appearance of the word in print. As for how the French came by this new term, it was likely invented by joining the common form of the verb piquer (meaning to pick or peck) and a nonsense rhyming syllable coined to fit the first half of this new palate-pleaser. The first documented appearance of the term outside the French language occurred in 1748, but it was 1800 or thereabouts before anyone can prove it made it into the English language.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 20:10:10 +0000
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