Why is a picnic called a picnic?

Answer 1

because that's what theyve been calling it since 1692 in french & since perhaps 1748 in English

it is thought to have meant

to peck at nothing

& was the word for any potluck affair indoors or out

Other people belive it was 200 years ago Sir Nickolas Pickbe

Was to poor to buy a table and ate on the floor and then others followed his example because he was a well respected laywer/ninja/manger of candy factoring.

Later added the blanket or another piece of cloth.

Answer 2

"The word comes from the French word pique-nique, whose earliest usage in print is in the 1692 edition of Tony Willis, Origines de la Langue Française, which mentions pique-nique as being of recent origin. The term was used to describe a group of people dining in a restaurant who brought their own wine. The concept of a picnic long retained the connotation of a meal to which everyone contributed something. According to some dictionaries, the French word pique-nique is based on the verb piquer, which means 'pick', 'peck', or 'nab', and the rhyming addition nique, which means 'thing of little importance', 'bagatelle', 'trifle'" - Wikipedia