Added 10 October 2026
banquet
/ˈbæŋkwɪt/ noun
In Latin: epulum, daps, festum Wiktionary
noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about banquet at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- A large celebratory meal; a feast.
- A ceremonial dinner party for many people.
- A dessert; a course of sweetmeats.
verb
- To participate in a banquet; to feast.
- To have dessert after a feast.
- To treat with a banquet or sumptuous entertainment of food; to feast.
Origin
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.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)