banquet - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

State Banquet.—Serving the Peacock.—Facsimile of a woodcut in an edition of Virgil, folio, published at Lyons in 1517.

A Chinese painting of an outdoor banquet, from the era of the Song Dynasty (960–1279).

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Middle French banquetbor.

English banquet

From Middle English banket, from Middle French banquet, from Italian banchetto (“light repast between meals, snack eaten on a small bench”, literally “a small bench”), from banco (“bench”), from Lombardic *bank, *panch (“bench”), from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench”). Akin to Old High German bank, banch (“bench”), Old English benċ (“bench”). More at bank, bench. The unetymological /w/ resulted from spelling-pronunciation.

banquet (plural banquets)

  1. A large celebratory meal; a feast.
    Synonym: reception
    • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:
      True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant,
      And in his commendations I am fed; / It is a banquet to me.
    • 1798, [William Wordsworth], “Nutting”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], →OCLC:
      [T]he hazels rose / Tall and erect, with milk-white clusters hung, / A virgin scene! — A little while I stood, / Breathing with such suppression of the heart / As joy delights in; and, with wise restraint / Voluptuous, fearless of a rival, eyed / The banquet, […]
    • 1933, Kahlil Gibran, The Garden of the Prophet‎[2]:
      And the sun, even as you and I and all there is, sits in equal honour at the banquet of the Prince whose door is always open and whose board is always spread.
    • 1972 March 6, “China Coverage: Sweet and Sour”, in Time:
      The thrill of discovery quickly wore off. TV crews and reporters were soon scurrying frantically to satisfy the medium’s insatiable appetite for novelty, sometimes achieving massive inanity instead. During coverage of the first great banquet, correspondents—who had not been given menus—variously described those little orange balls decorating the table’s center as pomegranates, oranges or JellO. (They were actually North China tangerines.)
  2. A ceremonial dinner party for many people.
  3. (archaic) A dessert; a course of sweetmeats.
    • 1874, Saturday Review: Politics, Literature, Science and Art:
      At Inverkeithing the teetotalers objected to this profligate expenditure, so the Provost and magistrates manfully paid for their “cookies” out of their own pockets. At Dunse, instead of a cake and wine banquet, there was “a fruit conversazione,” whatever that may be.

large celebratory meal — see also feast

banquet (third-person singular simple present banquets, present participle banqueting or (uncommon) banquetting, simple past and past participle banqueted or (uncommon) banquetted)

  1. (intransitive) To participate in a banquet; to feast.
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
      I am resolved; 'tis but a three years' fast: / The mind shall banquet, though the body pine: / Fat paunches have lean pates, and dainty bits / Make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits.
    • 1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, lines 701–702:
      Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, / I would not taste thy treasonous offer.
    • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter XXXII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
      "Ay, ay," said Wamba, who had resumed his attendance on his master, "rare feeding there will be—pity that the noble Athelstane cannot banquet at his own funeral.—But he," continued the Jester, lifting up his eyes gravely, "is supping in Paradise, and doubtless does honour to the cheer."
  2. (obsolete) To have dessert after a feast.
    • 1580, George Cavendish, quoted by John Stow (ed.), The Annales of England, Faithfully collected out of the most autenticall Authors, Records, and other Monuments of Antiquitie, 1600 edition, “Henry the eight.,” p. 907,[3]
      Then was the banquetting chamber in the tilt yard at Greenewich, to the which place these strangers were conducted by the noblest personages in the court, where they did both sup and banquet.
  3. (transitive) To treat with a banquet or sumptuous entertainment of food; to feast.
  1. ^ Jespersen, Otto (1909), A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9)‎[1], volume I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 7.34, page 215.

Borrowed from French banquet.

banquet m (plural banquets)

  1. banquet (celebratory meal)

From banc +‎ -et.

banquet m (plural banquets)

  1. small bench

Inherited from Middle French banquet, from Italian banchetto (“light repast between meals, snack eaten on a small bench”, literally “a small bench”), from banco (“bench”), from Lombardic bank (“bench”) / Lombardic panch (“bench”), from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench”). Akin to Old High German bank, banch (“bench”), Old English benc (“bench”). Compare Old French banquet, which only meant "small bench", from the same Proto-Germanic source.

banquet m (plural banquets)

  1. banquet

Descendants