Urban Legend or Not?
 

I'm sure many of you have seen the "story" about the origins of the word "Picnic".

I ask you...Do YOU think that there is some veracity to this story or is it an urban legend?

The reason I'm asking is because a few folks were up in arms about the use of the term "Greek Picnic" here in Philly....as a matter of fact one DeeJay went on a rant about how the organizers wouldn't use the word picnic if they knew what it meant.

Total urban legend. I looked it up sometime ago, and saw that it is a derivative of a French word.

I've gotten that email before. Thank goodness for Snopes.com!

http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/picnic.htm

Eclipse is right. Just this past semester I was in an African American Studies class & the professor was all about picnic meant 'pick-a-nigger'. Turns out it is a derivative of a French word piquenique. Which basically means to eat outside. So feel free to say picnic & please educate others so people won't be laughing at us as 'ignorant blacks' behind our backs!


Knowledge is power!

I think it may have been possible that "picnic" was slang or a code used for "pick-a-nigger" because supposedley lynchings that were not part of state executions were supposed to be illegal in this country in the 1870's or 1880's.

Sadly...
 

most lynching were attended like it was a public event. I bet some folks treated it as such (bringing a basket of lunch with them) so maybe that to could be where ther term's assoiation came from as well.

It may be that some folks tried to reorder the meaning of the word picnic back in the day, but the fact remains, the original use of the word, and the most common use of the word today is "eating outside". Thanks Paradise for giving the exact specs. I didn't feel like looking it up again! ;)

Interesting. I too looked up the word through Merriam-Webster's and it said the origin is unknown.

What about "pickaninny"?

This topic is right on time. Recently people @ my church had a discussion about using the word picnic for the church flyers. Some argued that it was a negative stereotype against blacks the majority disagreed and said that the word picnic didn't originate from that.

This is actually a West Indian word that was used as an affectionate term for little children. Of course it came stateside & was meant as an offensive term for black children. So like picnic it's meaning became skewed. But picnic is really not as offensive as we would like it to be.
To give the states credit for the origin of picnic is cute, but it's an internationally known word used among those who speak english to mean an outdoor eating experience. As a matter of fact I had never even heard of the word picnic being racist & it's not that way any other place besides some places in the States (I'm an international student). Does anybody know when this legend started & why?

Also webster has the origin of the word and so does oxford, both giving the etymology(origin) as French as "piquenique" and German as "Picknick".

Webster Online- http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary