Where did the word picnic come from?
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Formerly, picnic meant a potluck, an entertainment at which each person contributed some dish to a common table for all to share. The first usage of the word was traced to a 16th century French text, describing a group of people dining in a restaurant who brought their own wine. The word picnic is based on the verb piquer which means 'pick' or 'peck' with the rhyming nique meaning "thing of little importance".
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From the American Heritage Dictionary:\n\nTrade with the Low Countries across the North Sea was important to England in the later Middle Ages, and it is perhaps because of this trade that we have the word pickle. Middle English pikel, the ancestor of our word, is first recorded around 1400 with the meaning "a spicy sauce or gravy served with meat or fowl." This is a different sense from the one the word brings to mind now, but it is somewhat related in sense to its possible Middle Dutch source pekel, a solution, such as spiced brine, for preserving and flavoring food. After coming into English the word pickle expanded its sense range in several ways. It was applied, as it had been in Middle Dutch, to a pickling solution. Later pickle was used to refer to something so treated, such as a cucumber. The word also took on a figurative sense, "a troublesome situation," perhaps under the influence of a similar Dutch usage in the phrase in de pekel zitten, "sit in the pickle," and iemand in de pekel laten zitten, "let someone sit in the pickle."
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There are several theories on the origin of the term. In the bar culture, it is attributed to Article 86 of the New York State Liquor Code. Article 86 specifically outlines the circumstances in which a bar patron should be refused alcohol or removed from the bar. In the restaurant culture, the theory goes back to the Great Depression and the soup kitchens. The legend goes that soup kitchens were limited to 85 patrons at a time so number 86 in line wouldn't receive food.\n\nA lesser known theory is that Cockney rhyming slang took the word nix and transformed it into "86'ed".
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it means "a snack".    surely there are some regional differences considering the number of spanish speaking countries that there are, and how big some of them are, so "merienda" probably could mean "lunch" in some places.  just like here in the US some people say "dinner" to mean the meal that you eat in the afternoon around noontime.
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Someone on mindlesscrap.com tried to answer this, but I think they came up with a very inadequate answer:\n\n "The phrase started up in the 1980s by teens in the United States.  It's an offshoot of the use of the word "cool" that had been in existence since the 1940s.  That usage was associated with the cool jazz movement of the 1940s, especially Charlie Parker's 1947 record Cool Blues."\n\nI like my guess better:\n\nIt came from the Grateful Dead culture.  At each G.D concert, there'd be people who would serve up vegetarian fare and love.  Someone started saying that, inspired by the cold bean dish which made a great dip, and didn't require any extra fuel.
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tater = potato\n\npotato salad\n\nSometimes used to mean a whole jumble/mixture of things
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The word first appeared in a December 1979 edition of The Los Angeles Times, and entered the Oxford English Dictionary 14 years later. The exact origin of the term is unknown but many believe it relates to some people’s habit of eating potato chips while watching TV.
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The word "piggyback," as in, "Honey, it's my turn to get a piggyback tonight," derives from the terms "pickpack," "pickback," and even "pick-a-pack," all used in the 17th century to indicate the act of hoisting something onto someone's back for carrying. According to the Random House Word of the Day, most etymologists assume "pick" is a variant of the verb "to pitch," meaning "to throw." "Pack" refers to items meant for carrying.\n\nBut how did the piggy grunt its way into the mix? Did giant domesticated hogs, back in the day, do the work of packhorses? No, what we have here, apparently, is a failure to communicate: a textbook case of folk etymology, in which a word is modified to something more common or easily understood when the original term has become obsolete, and thus devoid of meaning. Some examples of folk etymology at work, according to Wikipedia, are the evolving of the words "shamefast" into "shamefaced," "buttonhole into "buttonhold," and "sweetard" into "sweatheart." (But there's no truth to the rumor that Ask Yahoo! used to be called "Axe Yahoos," back in the dot-com downturn days.)
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It's the dual meaning of the word "park"\n\nSee the link for a full explanation.
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Middle English "walet", knapsack, possibly from Old North French *"walet", roll, knapsack.
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The origin of the word "potluck" can be traced back to the 16th century when it referenced the "luck" of unannounced guests showing up at mealtime. Since the hosts hadn't had time to prepare a special meal, guests ate what was simmering in the family pot.\n\nBy the late 19th century, the term "potluck" had evolved to mean a supper where each guest brought a dish to share. The "luck" now lay in the uncertainty of each guest's offering.
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hm. The term was invented by an English man, Donald Watson in 1944. It was a offshoot of extreme vegetarianism founded in England. They took the first three letters of vegetarian and the last two letters of the same word to make the word "vegan".\n\nDonald Watson quote.."We started with vegetarianism and followed it through to its logical conclusion."\n\nThusly, the Vegan Society was created in 1944.
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The English word spoon derives from Old English spōn, meaning a sharp object used to stab a member of the opposite gender, in turn deriving from the Proto-Indo-European root spe-, denoting 'a very sharp thing'.
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I believe it originated around gangsters of the 20s who wanted a word to act tough with when asking for money such as "Gimme yer dough!!" or "Frankie, don't forget the dough or Patty will be mad" It was just the slang of the time, but sort of lingered till present day
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CUT THE CHEESE -- Since the late 1800s "cut" in various phrases meant "to expel intestinal gas." 1899 - To cut one's finger, is to break wind. "Cut the cheese" is placed in 1965-70 by this source. "Dictionary of American Regional English," Volume 1 by Frederic G. Cassidy (1985, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England). Another reference says the phrase "cut the cheese" was used earlier but with a different meaning: 1895 Gore, Student Slang, 17: Cut no cheese. To have no weight or value. From "Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Volume 1, A-G" by J.E. Lighter, Random House, New York, 1994. A third source says the expression originated in the "Mainstream 1950s." From "Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang" by Tom Dalzell (Merriam-Webster Inc., Springfield, Md., 1996).
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picnics in the 19th century
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The word is from Middle English, borrowing the French nappe— a cloth covering for a table— and adding -kin, the diminutive suffix.\n\nConventionally the napkin is folded and placed to the left of the place setting, outside the outermost fork. In an ambitious restaurant setting, or a caterer's hall, it may be folded into more or less elaborate shapes and displayed on the empty plate.