A comment on the "tar baby" thread referred to the claim that "picnic" is offensive because it refers to a lynching, the theory being that they were referred to as "pick nigs" or some such. The most prominent media source I could find that described such a complaint was this, from Andrew Brownstein, Albany Times Union, Apr. 18, 2000 (though the commenter reports that he too had been admonished about using the word):
To many, the word picnic conjures images of romance, of leisurely days in the park with cheese and a bottle of wine.
But for 40 University at Albany students, it harks back to an ugly chapter in American history -- when picnic, they alleged, meant a racist lynching....
Zaheer Mustafa, a student who serves as affirmative action director for the Student Assembly, issued the warning despite learning that the word had a harmless French derivation. It stems from the 17th-century pique-nique and referred to a fashionable type of social entertainment in which each person who attended brought a share of the food.
"My job is to make sure people from underrepresented groups are heard," Mustafa said. "Whether the claims are true or not, the point is the word offended."
He said he received 40 complaints about the issue last week, most of them from black students, which he called "unusual for such an apathetic campus." ...
Indeed, neither the current meaning nor the derivation of the word is related to lynchings; nor have I seen any evidence that the word was ever actually used in the "pick nig" sense. I'm not sure what Mr. Mustafa's job was, but I had thought that a university's job is to make sure that people from all groups, underrepresented and otherwise, are educated, and that their erroneous beliefs are corrected rather than being catered to.
Yours, TDP, ml, msl, &pfpp
How adorably quaint. Are you sure you're a professor?
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, it 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 its 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 Britain until c.1800.
French word, pique-nique, which first appeared at the end of the seventeenth century. It referred to a fashionable type of social entertainment in which each person who attended brought a share of food.
Yep that’s right. It was a top aide to Washington DC mayor Anthony Williams. The aide (David Howard) used the word in a meeting and Marshall Brown complained about a racial slur. Howard resigned and the mayor accepted Howard’s resignation, but later came to regret it and offered Howard his job back. Howard refused, but later took another job in William’s administration. At first glance it might seem that Brown is an idiot because it was clear from the context of the conversation that “niggardly” could not have a racial connotation. Digging deeper we learn that Brown was a holdover from the prior Barry administration and either he or the other person at the meeting was passed over for the job Howard got. That suggests someone was trying to play the race card yet again.
The irony is that the incident brought two identity politics groups into conflict; David Howard was the official Openly Gay member of the administration. When some black groups demanded his ouster (though it should be noted, not all; many agreed that it was stupid), gay groups complained when he was forced out.
Sorry.
This has happened to me on numerous occasions during 'net discussions/debates. I'm always like "Huh?"
We will soon need another word. Time to search other languages. What's the word for picnic in Russian?
Well, I thought it was funny.
How about "beyond the pale"?
Somehow this has become a sexually charged phrase, complete with new trendy extensions. The odd thing is that the new morphed meaning clearly makes less sense than the old in almost all of the settings in which the word is commonly used.
[vbg]This is a horrifying anti-celtic-irish slur, suggesting that absent the civilizing influence of their Norman overlords, the Irish acted like uncouth, lawless barbarians. I am insulted on the part of my two and a half Irish grandparents. More over, I am shocked, shocked to read James Lindgren, a Scandinavian last named individual, would use such an expression on a well read, well respected, blog![/vbg]
Would that spelling were, as well. ;)
Or, perhaps more topically, Arabic?