Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Picnic |
PicnicNoun1. A day devoted to an outdoor social gathering. 2. Any activity that is easy to do; "marketing this product will be no picnic". 3. Any informal meal eaten outside or on an excursion. Verb1. Eat alfresco, in the open air. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "picnic" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of attending a picnic, foreshadows success and real enjoyment. Dreams of picnics, bring undivided happiness to the young. Storms, or any interfering elements at a picnic, implies the temporary displacement of assured profit and pleasure in love or business. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In contemporary usage, picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors, ideally, taking place in a beautiful landscape.
Formerly, the term picnic described an entertainment at which each person contributed some dish to a common table (potluck) in a public fashion. The first usage of the word picnic was traced to a 16th century French text, describing a group of people dining in a restaurant who brought their own wine. A theory has it that the word picnic is based on the verb 'piquer' which means 'pick' or 'peck' with the rhyming nique perhaps added in half reminiscence of the obsolete 'nique', meaning 'trifle'.
The 1692 edition of Origines de la Langue Françoise de Ménage, which mentions 'piquenique' as being of recent origin, marks the first appearance of the word in print. The word picnic first appeared in English texts in the mid-1700s. The English may have picked it up via the German version: Picknick.
Historically picnics have developed and manifested themselves in various forms. After the French Revolution in 1789 the royal parks became for the first time open to the public and picnicking there became a popular activity amongst the newly enfranchised citizens.
Early in the 19th century a fashionable group of Londoners formed the 'Picnic Society'. Members met in the Pantheon on Oxford Street. Each member was expected to provide a share of the entertainment and of the refreshments with no one particular host. Interest in the society waned in the 1850s as the founders died.
The image of picnics as a peaceful social activity can be utilised for political protest too. In this context picnic functions as a temporary occupation of significant public territory. A famous example of this is the Paneuropean Picnic held on both sides of the Hungarian / Austrian border on the 19th of August 1989 as part of the struggle to reunify Germany (see Berlin Wall). Homepage of Paneuropean Picnic .
In the year 2000 a 600 miles long picninc took place from coast to coast in France to celebrate the first Bastille Day of the new Millennium. In the United States, likewise, the 4th of July celebration of American independace is a favorite picnic day.
Fine Arts
- The most famous classical work of art associated with picnic is Le déjeuner sur l'herbe that Edouard Manet painted 1862.
Literature
- Charles Dickens: The Mystery of Edwin Drood "...Miss Twinkleton (in her amateur state of existence) has contributed herself and a veal pie to a picnic." textfile from project Gutenberg
- In Jane Austen's novel Emma at the Box Hill picnic which turned out to be a sore disappointment, Frank Churchill said to Emma :'Our companions are excessively stupid. What shall we do to rouse them? Any nonsense will serve...' textfile from project Gutenberg
- The Annual Picnic of the Finnegans Wake Society of New York City
- In Fernando Arrabal's Picnic in the Field the young and inexperienced soldier Zepo is visited unexpectedly by his devoted parents. Despite the war setting they have a cheerful picnic together.
- The utopian novel 'Roadside Picnic' by Arkadi and Boris Strugatzki, which was written 1972, was the source for the film Stalker (1979) by Andrei Tarkovsky. An English textfile of the translation
Film
- Picnic (movie) (1955) directed by Joshua Logan
- With Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) Peter Weir constructs a film of haunting mystery. Three girls and one of their teachers on a school outing mysteriously disappear. The only one that is later found remembers almost nothing.
- 'Baij on the Beach', Gurinder Chada (1993). The German version of the film is titled 'Picknick on the Beach'. Nine Indian women of various ages flee away from their everyday life into a joint excursion to the English resort town of Blackpool. A rather unharmonious journey because conflicts between generations raise emotions to a fever pitch.
Music
- In 1906 the American composer J. K. Bratton wrote a musical piece originally titled 'The Teddy Bear Two Step'. It became popular in an 1908 instrumental version renamed 'Teddy Bears' Picnic, performed by the Arthur Pryor Band. The song regained prominence in 1932 when the Irish lyricist Jimmy Kennedy added words and it was recorded by the then popular Henry Hall (& his BBC Dance Orch) featuring Val Rosing (Gilbert Russell) as lead vocalist, which went on to sell a million copies. 'Teddy Bear Picnic' resurfaced again in the late 1940's and early 1950's when it was used as the theme song for the Big John and Sparky radio program, a children's show presented on Saturday mornings. This perennial favorite has appeared on many children's recordings ever since. instrumental version as mp3 file -lyrics and audio files
- 'Stone Soul Picnic', by Laura Nyro (released in 1968) the lyrics and a mp3 file It was a major hit for the group The Fifth Dimension
Language
- While in British and American English one would say 'driving in rush hour traffic is no picnic', a Australian or New Zealander would say 'driving in rush hour traffic is a real picnic' these reversed idioms both suggesting a difficult task.
- In the late 1990s an e-mail hoax spread around the internet claiming that the word "picnic" was actually derived from racist term for a lynching. This claim had no basis in fact. See: Snopes.com urban legends reference page
Law
- Picnicking is sometimes not allowed in amusement parks, etc, because it could damage the turnover of restaurants, cafetarias and food kiosks in the park.
- "Picnicking" in the wider sense of eating brought-along food, may or may not be allowed in public transport.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Picnic."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Picnic is a 1955 film which tells the story of of a drifter who crashes a small town's Labor Day picnic and romances a girl who's already spoken-for. It stars William Holden, Kim Novak, Susan Strasberg, Cliff Robertson, Arthur O'Connell, Nick Adams and Rosalind Russell.The movie was adapted from the William Inge play by Daniel Taradash. It was directed by Joshua Logan.
It won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color and Best Film Editing. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and Best Picture.
In 1957, a marketing specialist announced that for six weeks he had included subliminal messages in showings of the movie Picnic. The messages supposedly said: "Eat Popcorn, Drink Coca-Cola." He claimed that sales of his products increased from 18 to 57%. He later admitted that his claims were just a marketing trick.
Picnic was remade for television in 1986, starring Gregory Harrison, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Learned, Rue McClanahan and Dick Van Patten. It was directed by Marshall W. Mason. It was again remade for television in 2000, starring Bonnie Bedelia, Josh Brolin, Gretchen Mol, Jay O. Sanders and Mary Steenburgen. The screenplay was adapted by Shelley Evans, and the movie was directed by Ivan Passer.
Picnic is also a Japanese movie.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Picnic (movie)."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
PICNIC | English | Pleasure Craft National Index Computer | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: PicnicSynonyms: child's play (n), cinch (n), duck soup (n), field day (n), outing (n), piece of cake (n), pushover (n), snap (n), walkover (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Amusement | Festivity, merrymaking; party; (social gathering); blowout, hullabaloo, hoedown, bat, bum, bust, clambake, donation party, fish fry, jamboree, kantikoy, nautch, randy, squantum, tear, Turnerfest, yule log; fete, festival, gala, ridotto; revels, revelry, reveling; carnival, brawl, saturnalia, high jinks; feast, banquet; (food); regale, symposium, wassail; carouse, carousal; jollification, junket, wake, Irish wake, picnic, fete champetre, regatta, field day; treat. |
Food | Meal, repast, feed, spread; mess; dish, plate, course; regale; regalement, refreshment, entertainment; refection, collation, picnic, feast, banquet, junket; breakfast; lunch, luncheon; dejeuner, bever, tiffin, dinner, supper, snack, junk food, fast food, whet, bait, dessert; potluck, table d'hote, dejeuner a la fourchette; hearty meal, square meal, substantial meal, full meal; blowout; light refreshment; bara, chotahazri; bara khana. |
Participation | Snacks, coportion, picnic, hotchpot; co-heirship, co-parceny, co-parcenary; gavelkind. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Picnic |
| English words defined with "picnic": alive with, attached ♦ break open ♦ case, crawling with ♦ damper ♦ event ♦ good ♦ infest, invade ♦ Marooning party ♦ on, out, overflowing with, overrun, overrun with ♦ Picknick, Picnicked, Picnicking ♦ rain date, roofed ♦ stretch, stretch out, suggestion, swarming with ♦ teeming with ♦ whoop. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "picnic": Barrack Hack ♦ HAMMOCK. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Picnic" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Danish (picnic), German (picnic), Italian (picnic), Manx (picnic ), Romanian (junket, outing, picnic), Spanish (picnic), Welsh (picnic). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I am essential to the theatre - as ants to a picnic, as the boll weavil to a cotton field (All About Eve; writing credit: Joseph L. Mankiewicz) What do you think I'm proposing here, picnic baskets in a meadow (Legalese; writing credit: Billy Ray) A picnic! First of all, daylight (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) This is no Sunday School picnic! (Night of the Living Dead; writing credit: George A. Romero; John A. Russo) Hangin' around with you is no picnic. (Silverado; writing credit: Lawrence Kasdan; Mark Kasdan) | |
Lyrics | You can plan a pretty picnic (Ms. Jackson; performing artist: Outkast) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Office Picnic (1973) El Picnic de los Campanelli (1972) Sex Picnic (1971) Picnic (1966) Foofles Picnic (1960) | |
Song Titles | Malcom's X-Ray Picnic (performing artist: Number One Cup) Stoned Soul Picnic (performing artist: The Fifth Dimension) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A group of two adults and four children around a picnic table having a barbeque. Credit: Michael Anderson (photographer). |  | Black woman sitting at a picnic table in a park lighting a cigarette. Credit: Bill Branson (photographer). |
 | Langley Laboratory Annual Picnic, Buckroe Beach. Credit: NASA. |  | Taking in the glories of nature Picnic and swim at a Palawan waterfall. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | Volunteers helping clean up the wetlands and waterfront area around Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor. Stopping for lunch at the Fort McHenry picnic area. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Always time for a little softball at a ship's picnic ashore. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |
 | People having fun at the camping and picnic area of Lake Icaria in the Walters Creek Watershed project in Adams County. Credit: Gene Alexander. |  | A picnic for tennant farmers of the Duke Power Co. near Mooresvill, North carolina. Dr. Hugh Hammond Bennett (left) first Chief of the Soil Conservation Service and Mr. Roach Stewart (Duke Power Co.). Credit: Unknown. |
 | Canoeists camping at picnic table, Delta River Wayside, Alaska. Credit: James Thomson. |  | Boise Foothills FireDanskin Mountains and South Fork of Boise RiverBurnt picnic tableFour River Field OfficeLSRDLower Snake River District. Credit: Unknown. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Picnic" by Priit Kallas Commentary: "Resting after hearty meal." | "Picnic Table" by Matthew Maaskant Commentary: "A picnic table falling apart in the forest. http://www.qr5.com ." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Sylvie and Bruno | Carroll, Lewis | The carriage was ordered round, the hamper, containing our contribution to the Picnic, was duly stowed away, and we set forth |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Bahrain | The owners are planning to build chalets, a docking facility, a clubhouse, a seafood restaurant, picnic and beach areas, an artificial reef, and an outdoor swimming pool. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Picnic" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 94.85% of the time. "Picnic" is used about 659 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 94.85% | 625 | 10,366 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 4.39% | 29 | 64,444 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 0.76% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Total | 100.00% | 659 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "picnic": dawn picnic to hear first birdsong ♦ no picnic ♦ picnic area ♦ picnic basket ♦ picnic box ♦ picnic ground ♦ picnic ham ♦ picnic place ♦ picnic shoulder ♦ picnic site. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "picnic": picnic-in-the-park, picnic-patch, picnic-type. | |
Ending with "picnic": post-picnic. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
picnic backpack | 3,931 | picnic clip art | 82 |
picnic basket | 2,778 | picnic pop | 79 |
picnic | 2,060 | wood picnic table | 75 |
picnic table | 1,768 | picnic supply | 74 |
picnic table plan | 607 | nelson picnic willie | 73 |
picnic game | 557 | picnic hamper | 70 |
picnic recipe | 521 | picnic table design | 65 |
picnic food | 343 | octagon picnic plan table | 65 |
picnic clipart | 255 | picnic bench | 62 |
free picnic table plan | 221 | picnic invitation | 60 |
picnic idea | 218 | picnic table kit | 58 |
chin picnic | 163 | child picnic table | 57 |
build a picnic table | 159 | wooden picnic table | 52 |
the teddy bear picnic | 159 | building picnic table | 49 |
company picnic | 126 | octagon picnic table | 49 |
picnic menu | 118 | plastic picnic table | 48 |
picnic blanket | 118 | company picnic idea | 48 |
folding picnic table | 106 | 4th july nelson picnic willie | 46 |
picnic picture | 95 | picnic at hanging rock | 46 |
picnic playwright | 87 | brandywine park picnic | 43 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "picnic"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | piekniek hou, piekniek. (various references) | |
Albanian | piknik (Fry, partying). (various references) | |
Arabic | مهمة سهلة (pushover), نزهة في الهواء الطلق, تفسح (mosey), تنزه (hike, knock around, mosey, parade, perambulate, promenade, ramble, stretch one's legs, stroll, tramp, troll, walk). (various references) | |
Asturian | merienda. (various references) | |
Blackfoot | iitáí'tssksoyo'p. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | участвувам в пикник, солен преден свински крак, ям сред природата, ям на открито, нещо лесно (pipe), нещо приятно (jam), лесна работа (cinch, pie, pipe, pushover, set up, snap), пушен преден свински крак, пикник (junket, junketing). (various references) | |
Cebuano | pangaligo sa dagat. (various references) | |
Chinese | 野餐 . (various references) | |
Czech | pořádat piknik, piknikový, piknik (barbecue), jít na piknik, hraèka (affair, child's play, knick knack, plaything, pushover, toy, walkover). (various references) | |
Danish | picnic. (various references) | |
Dutch | picknicken. (various references) | |
Esperanto | pikniko, pikniki. (various references) | |
Faeroese | útferð (excursion, outing, sightseeing trip). (various references) | |
Farsi | پیک نیک (Clambake), گردش دسته جمعی , دسته جمعی خوردن , به پیک نیک رفتن . (various references) | |
Finnish | retki (excursion, expedition, outing, trip, walking tour). (various references) | |
French | promenade, pique-niquer, pique-nique, se promener, faire un pique-nique. (various references) | |
Frisian | piknik. (various references) | |
German | Picknick. (various references) | |
Greek | πικνίκ (junket). (various references) | |
Hawaiian | piknik. (various references) | |
Hebrew | פיקניק. (various references) | |
Hungarian | piknik (basket lunch), kirándulás (excursion, hike, hiking, maroon, outing, run, sally, spin, tour, trip), kellemes időtöltés, jó szórakozás. (various references) | |
Indonesian | tamasya (excursion, outing, sightseeing). (various references) | |
Inuktitut | nirilutit silami. (various references) | |
Italian | picnic, scampagnata (outing), fare un picnic. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 遊山 (excursion, outing), 行楽 (excursion, outing, pleasure trip), 遠足 (hike, trip), 遠足 (hike, trip), ピギーバック輸送 (10^-12, pf, picket, pickles, pico-, picofarad, picot, pictograph, picture, piggyback system, pique, Pisa, pixar, pixel, Pygmy). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ピクニック , こうらく (excursion, interrelationship, outing, pleasure trip, statistics confounding), ゆさん (excursion, outing), えんそく (hike, trip). (various references) | |
Korean | 픽크닉. (various references) | |
Macedonian | piknik. (various references) | |
Manx | picnical, picnic, lhongey fo'n speyr, ee fo'n aer. (various references) | |
Maori | pikiniki. (various references) | |
Papiamen | piknik. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | icnicpay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | piquenique (junket). (various references) | |
Romanian | picnic (junket, outing), organiza un picnic (junket), lua parte la un picnic, amuzament (amusement, dalliance, distraction, diversion, entertainment, jest, jocularity, pastime, recreation). (various references) | |
Russian | участвовать в пикнике (picnicked, picnicking), пикник (basket dinner, basket lunch, basket picnic, fete champetre, junket, junketing, partying). (various references) | |
Samoan | tafaoga. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | piknik, izletnički (holiday maker, holidaymaker), izlet (excursion, hike, jaunt, junket, outing), ići na izlet (junket). (various references) | |
Spanish | pic nic. (various references) | |
Swedish | utflykt (airing, excursion, expedition, jaunt, junket, outing, picknic, ramble, Sally, trip). (various references) | |
Turkish | piknik yapmak, piknik (basket dinner, basket lunch, cookout), evde rahatsız bir biçimde oturmak, basit iş (mickey mouse, pie, plain sailing, pushover), çocuk oyuncağı (as easy as pie, breeze, child's play, cinch, it's pie, jam, pushover, toy). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | вести безладний спосіб життя, задоволення (amusement, bang, content, contentment, delectation, delight, enjoyment, gratification, gusto, kick, pleasure, relish, repletion, satisfaction, treat), брати участь у пікніку, пікнік (barbecue, junket, outing). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | việc ngon xơi, việc dễ làm (child's play). (various references) | |
Welsh | picnic, gwigwyl. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "picnic": picnicked, picnicker, picnickers, picnicking, picnicky, picnics. (additional references) | |
| |
"Picnic" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: icic, Icpic, nickick, Pachnuik, peonic, Philnico, pianic, picchi, Picenum, Pichi, pickni, picknic, pic-nic, picnick, picnioc, Pincio, Pincock, pinich, pinnic, Pinnick, pionic, Pitnick, pycnic. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-c-i-i-n-p" | |
-3 letters: nip, pic, pin. | |
-4 letters: in, pi. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-c-i-i-n-p" | |
+1 letter: picnics. | |
+2 letters: capsicin, picnicky. | |
+3 letters: capsaicin, capsicins, coppicing, hiccuping, isopycnic, panmictic, picnicked, picnicker, pinocytic. | |
+4 letters: capsaicins, hiccupping, incapacity, incipience, incipiency, picnickers, picnicking, polyclinic, practicing, unspecific. | |
+5 letters: accipitrine, captaincies, conspecific, conspicuity, coprincipal, corecipient, coscripting, incipiences, microphonic, necrophilic, nociceptive, nonspecific, percipience, pinocytotic, polyclinics, preclinical, proficiency, sphincteric. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Abbreviations 16. Acronyms | 17. Derivations 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
