Quote:
Originally posted by Ideal08
Picnic
Internet lore (and perhaps folklore prior to the internet) has the origin of this word as lynching party for blacks in the American South, originally deriving from the phrase pick an nigger. This is absolutely incorrect. The word's origins have no racial overtones whatsoever.
In actuality, the word derives from the French pique-nique, meaning the same thing as it does in English--an outing that includes food. Pique is either a reference to a leisurely style of eating (as in "pick at your food") or it's a reference to selective delicacies chosen for the outing. Nique is a nonsense syllable chosen to rhyme. The word appears in English as early as 1748 in reference to picnics in Germany. The word did not gain widespread use in Britain until c. 1800.
|
THANK YOU!! If I get one more Black person admonishing me for calling something a picnic I swear!!
I told my husband last night I was going to start a rumor saying if you read 5 books in 5 days the sky will open and you will get money (a la those email messages) to see how many people believe it. Sometimes we will believe anything!