Where did the word banquet originate and where?

Answer 1

It comes from a French word banquet, which means 'little bench'. One can only imagine that the benches were small because backless, so that waiters could access the table. The French evidently took the word from Italy around 1450AD, where it had been in use in 1363AD. The habit of the Germanic peoples eating their meals on benches at tables, rather than lying in front of low tables as the Romans did, was discussed by Tacitus.