Picnic : nm A picnic (plural picnics) or picnic is a country meal, taken in the open air.
Unlike the snack, a simple meal that is eaten quickly, the picnic is a pleasant meal, prepared in advance, and often of extended duration. We take it outside (in nature, in a garden, on a beach, etc.).
Originally designed to allow you to enjoy the good weather and nature, the picnic is also a pretext to meet up with family or friends, and share the dishes that each brings. Often made up of cold dishes, the picnic can also be enriched with meats cooked on a skewer or on the grill (barbecue).
According to the historical dictionary of the French language Robert, from an etymological point of view, the term "nique" which dates from the end of the XNUMXth century and which one finds in the expression "dire nic", that is to say "Not to worry about" means something of little value ". “Having a picnic meal” is therefore having a meal, not necessarily on the grass, but where everyone makes their contribution. This aged meaning is attested from the XNUMXth century.
In the XNUMXth century, we used to say a “picnic” (female) or a “picnic” (male). The expression "picnic" would have passed in England, then returned to France in the middle of the XNUMXth century.
Émile Littré indicates in his dictionary that this term came from “pick”, “enter” and “nick”, “point”, “instant”, and that “this etymology dispenses with all the etymologies that were made on picnic” .
The picnic evokes sharing and conviviality, here today associated with leisure, formerly with work in the fields, but could also be reminiscent of “nomadic eating”.
This practice has locally significant impacts on land use planning and public natural spaces. Various facilities including car parks, tables and benches, garbage cans, "picnic areas" on the sides of motorways with possibly toilets and children's play, grassed areas in green spaces. These spaces, the use of which is often very seasonal, require special maintenance and waste management.
The record for the largest picnic in the world was broken on July 14, 2016 in Mayenne, where a 20,427 km long sheet was erected along the towpath, between Saint-Jean-sur-Mayenne and Nuillé-sur-Vicoin .
Quote from the American writer Truman Capote, by his birth name Truman Streckfus Persons (1924-1984): “For a second, she was taken aback. What invitation? Then the memory came back to her, even overwhelmed her. She remembered Winfried, a kind of blue whale that Mink had brought to the picnic”, in her novel The Crossing of Summer (published posthumously in 2005).