banquet

English

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).

Etymology

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 benc (“bench”). More at bank, bench.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈbæŋkwɪt/
  • Audio (US)
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Noun

banquet (plural banquets)

  1. A large celebratory meal; a feast.

Translations

a large celebratory meal; a feast

Verb

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

  1. To participate in a banquet; to feast.
    • Milton
      Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, I would not taste thy treasonous offer.
  2. (obsolete) To have dessert after a feast.
    • Cavendish
      Where they did both sup and banquet.
  3. To treat with a banquet or sumptuous entertainment of food; to feast.
    • Coleridge
      Just in time to banquet / The illustrious company assembled there.
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French

Etymology

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 benc (“bench”). Compare Old French banquet, which only meant "small bench", from the same Proto-Germanic source.

Pronunciation

Noun

banquet m (plural banquets)

  1. banquet
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Last modified on 14 May 2013, at 15:07