/ · 1894 Brewer’s · L · Luncheon. (Welsh, llonc or llwnc, a gulp; llyncu, to swallow at a gulp.)
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Luncheon. (Welsh, llonc or llwnc, a gulp; llyncu, to swallow at a gulp.)
The notion of its derivation from the Spanish once, eleven, is borrowed from the word nuncheon, i.e. nón-mete, a noon repast. Hence Hudibras:
“When, laying by their swords and truncheons,
They took their breakfasts, or their nuncheons.”
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Entry taken from
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,
edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.