EY.

* * * * *

PIC-NIC.

(Vol. vii., p. 23.)

As I consider that the true origin of _pic-nic_ remains yet to be
discovered, permit me to try and trace the word through France into
Italy, and to endeavour to show that the land with the "fatal gift of
beauty" was its birthplace; and that when the Medici married into
France, the august ladies probably imported, together with fans, gloves,
and poisons, a pastime which, under the name of _pique-nique_, became,
as Leroux says in his _Dictionnaire Comique_, "un divertissement fort a
la mode a Paris."

I will not occupy space by quoting the article "at length" from Leroux,
but the substance is this:--Persons of quality, of both sexes, who
wished to enjoy themselves, and feast together, either in the open air
or in the house of one of the number, imposed upon each one the task of
bringing some particular article, or doing some particular duty in
connexion with the feast. And to show how stringent was the expression
_pique-nique_ in imposing a specific task, Leroux quotes "considerant
que chacun avait besoin de ses pieces, prononca un _arret_ de
pique-nique." (_Rec. de Piec. Com._)

Thus, I think Leroux and also Cotgrave show that the word _pique-nique_
involves the idea of a task, or particular office, undertaken by each
individual for the general benefit.

Let us now go to Italian, and look at the word _nicchia_. Both from
Alberti and from Baretti we find it to bear the meaning of "a charge, a
duty, or an employment;" and if before this word we place the adjective
_piccola_, we have _piccola nicchia_, "a small task, or trifling service
to be performed." Now I think no one can fail to see the identity of the
_meanings_ of the expressions _piccola nicchia_ and _pique-nique_; but
it remains to show how the words themselves may be identical. Those who
have been in the habit of reading much of the older Italian authors
(subsequent to Boccacio) will bear me out in my statement of the
frequency of contraction of words in familiar use: the plays,
particularly, show it, from the dialogues in Machiavelli or Goldoni to
the libretto of a modern opera; so much as to render it very probable
that _piccola nicchia_ might stand as _picc' nicc'_, just as we
ourselves have been in the habit of degrading _scandalum magnatum_ into
_scan. mag._ It only remains now to carry this _picc' nicc'_ into
France, and, according to what is usual in Gallicising Italia