Well, no wonder there was no citations, or places to find the truth. Thank you for clearing this up. Anita -- cagney <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Anita, According to The Word Detective (http://word-detective.com), in a column published in newspapers on 11/05/98: "This horrifying story is, as I'm sure you suspect, not even remotely true. 'Picnic' first appeared in English in 1748, apparently borrowed directly from the French 'piquenique,' which combined 'piquer' (pick) with the obsolete French word 'nique' (trifle). The first picnics were what we would call pot-luck dinners. Only in the mid-19th century did 'picnic' come to mean a meal eaten outdoors. There is not, and never was, a secret racist history to 'picnic.'" Thank goodness that it is only an urban legend! Jean Spradlin-Miller ----- Original Message ----- From: "Anita Wills" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2007 2:18 PM Subject: Re: Violent holidays (was Re: Juneteenth) >I heard many years ago that pic nic, was a derogatory term for African >Americans. I did not research this term, but understood that it referred to >finding and killing a black person, and then having a Pic nic. Maybe >someone else knows exactly what the historical significance is of this >word. > > Anita _____________________________________________________________ Click for dental plans with huge savings, top service and coverage http://track.netzero.net/s/lc?u=http://tagline.untd.us/fc/Ioyw6ijleEEJst85edgNCRwCGRXoLSbcafeC2LQ55G94JqFfRvFswb/