Expert: Carol Pozefsky - 7/2/2007

Question
Can you tell me the origin of the word, picnic?

Answer
Hello and welcome to a new week,
    The word 'picnic' is first seen in Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son in 1748.  At the time it referred to a fashionable social gathering in which each participant contributed a share of the provisions.  The word was borrowed from the French word 'picquenique (1692)  which is of uncertain origin.  Etymologist Robert Barnhart speculates that it could have come from a rhyming reduplication of the French word 'piquer' meaning to pick, or peck.  or perhaps is a compound of the French 'piquer to pick + nique a worthless thing.
The best to you always,
Carol P.