E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Banquet
used at one time to mean the dessert. Thus, Taylor, in the Pennyless Pilgrim, says: “Our first and second course being threescore dishes at one boord, and after that, always a banquet.” (French, banquet; banc, a bench or table. We use “table” also for a meal or feast, as “the funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage table,” i.e. feast.)
1
“After supper … a delicate banquet, with abundance of wine.”—Cogan (1583).
A banquet of brine. A flood of tears.
2
“My heart was charged to overflowing, and forced into my eyes a banquet of brine.”—C. Thomson: Autobiography, p. 263.
