junket
verbEtymology From Middle English jonket (“basket made of rushes”), from Medieval Latin iuncta, possibly from Latin iuncus (“rush, reed”) and therefore a possible doublet of jonquil. Meaning shifted to “feast or banquet” by 1520s, probably via the notion of a picnic basket. This in turn led to the sense of “pleasure trip” (1814), and then to specifically to “trip made ostensibly for business but which entails merrymaking or entertainment” by 1886 in American English.
1
Dated To attend a junket; to feast.
- Be careful that you wast not, or spoil your Ladies, or Mistresses goods, neither sit you up junketing a nights, after your Master and Mistress be abed.1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, page 2:
- 1688, Robert South, Sermon preached on 8 April, 1688, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions. The Second Volume, London: Thomas Bennet, p. 414, Iob’s Children junketted and feasted together often, but the Reckoning cost them dear at last.
2 more examples
- ’Tis better than lying abed half the day, and junketing and card-playing all the night, and makeing yourselves wholly useless to every good purpose in your own families, as is now the fashion among ye […]1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume I, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, page 218:
- After they had built their water-house and laid their pipes, it occurred to them that the place was suitable for junketing. Once entertained, with jovial magistrates and public funds, the idea led speedily to accomplishment; and Edinburgh could soon boast of a municipal Pleasure House.1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 10, in Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes, London: Seeley, Jackson & Halliday, page 38:
2
To go on a junket; to travel.
- Together they made trips to town or junketed over the country in search of furniture and dishes of which Miss Sally had heard.1910, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Miss Sally’s Letter:
- It is only by much junketing about that one comes to the full realization of what men and women in the main are doing in this country. One learns as he passes from town to town, through cities and across plains, that the general reason for industry everywhere is to get the means to build and support a home.1921, Ida Tarbell, “The Socialization of the Home”, in The Business of Being a Woman, New York: Macmillan:
3 more examples
- It was her belief that the summer folk went junketing off with the first fall of autumn leaves, leaving their cats to starve.1943, Patrick Quentin, “The Last of Mrs. Maybrick”, in Marc Gerald, editor, Murder Plus: True Crime Stories from the Masters of Detective Fiction, New York: Pharos, published 1992, page 214:
- On the boat I met an old art history professor, with whom I junketed around for a while, visiting museums in London and Paris […]1985, Herman Wouk, chapter 81, in Inside, Outside, New York: Avon, published 1986, page 549:
- These days the astronaut job title has been split into two categories. (Three, counting payload specialist, the category into which teachers, boondoggling senators, and junketing Saudi princes fall.)2010, Mary Roach, “He's Smart But His Birds Are Sloppy: Japan Picks an Astronaut”, in Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 28:
3
To regale or entertain with a feast.