PICNIC  , a fcrin of entertainment in which the guests are invited to join an excursion to some

place where a meal can be taken in the open air . During the first half of the 19th century the essential of a picnic was that the guests should each bring with them a contribution of provisions . At the beginning of the 19th century a society was formed in London called the " Picnic Society," the members of which supped at the Pantheon in Oxford Street, and drew lots as to what part of the meal each should supply (see L . Melville, The Beaux of the Regency, 1908, i . 222) . The French form pique-nique is said to be of recent introduction in 1692 (Menage, Diet. etym.) . It is doubtful whether picnic is merely a rhyming word, or can be referred to pique, pick, and nique, small coin .