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Picnic trivia questions and answers to read aloud on the blanket: where the word comes from, what a Victorian picnic for forty packed, who carried the luncheon-basket, and where the A-frame table began.
Read the full guide
Picnic food trivia questions
Picnic food asks what goes in the basket: the potluck, hard-boiled eggs and cold chicken, a bill of fare of 1861 with six lobsters and a Christmas pudding, and the veal pie in a Dickens novel.
The other three rounds
The word and its history runs from a French verse of 1649 to a picnic 1,000 km long. Picnics in books, paintings and games has Emma, the riverbank picnic of 1908 and the watermelon relay. The picnic table follows the A-frame from a 1903 patent to the 1930s.
- At a real picnic, start with Picnic food: it has the most answers a table can guess.
Questions and answers
Where does the word picnic come from?
From the French pique-nique, first seen in 1649. Some dictionaries trace it to piquer, to pick or peck, and nique, a trifle. In English it began to mean an outdoor meal only at the beginning of the 19th century.
Who invented the picnic table?
The first known modern picnic table is in a 1903 patent application by Charles H. Nielsen of New York. The classic A-frame design originated at Lassen National Forest in California in 1926.
What are some easy picnic trivia questions?
What is a picnic called when each person brings a dish to share? Which heavy fruit may be used in a relay race? What do picnickers like to sit on? The answers are a potluck, a watermelon, and a rug or blanket.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article Picnic or Picnic table, linked under the question. Films and songs with picnic in the title are left out, and so are wine, cider and champagne.