The Ugly Story About Picnic Is Not True
A picnic is an outdoor meal. A widely circulated claim about a sinister origin has no basis in the word's history.
A picnic is a meal eaten outdoors. A claim circulates online that the word comes from a phrase describing lynchings in the American South. It does not: *picnic* appears in French as *pique-nique* in the 1690s, long before and far away, and originally meant a social meal to which each guest contributed. The false story is a well-documented modern invention.
- An outdoor meal. *A summer picnic.*
- Something easy. *No picnic.*
- To eat outdoors. *We picnicked by the river.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | picnic | A family picnic. |
| Plural | picnics | Summer picnics. |
| Verb | picnic | Picnic in the park. |
| Past | picnicked | They picnicked. |
| Related | pique-nique | French *pique-nique*. |
How it is used in a sentence
- It was no picnic.Difficult.
- The word is French and dates from the 1690s.Long before the false story's setting.
- Picnicked takes a K.To keep the C hard.
Why the false story fails
- Date — the word appears in French in the 1690s
- Place — France, not the American South
- Meaning — a shared meal to which each guest contributed
- Documentation — the claim has been traced to internet circulation in the 1990s
- Lesson — a plausible-sounding etymology is not evidence
From French *pique-nique*, recorded from 1692, probably from *piquer*, to pick at, with a rhyming second element.
Does picnic have a racist origin?
No. The word is French, first recorded in 1692, and meant a shared meal. The contrary claim is a modern invention with no historical support.
Why does picnicked have a K?
Without it the C would be read as soft. English adds K to keep the hard sound, as in panicked and trafficking.