the.com/thanksgiving

means A harvest-season holiday devoted to giving thanks, traditionally marked by a large shared meal.

from Built plainly from 'thanks' plus 'giving' — the act of giving thanks. The word existed in English for religious thanksgiving observances well before it attached itself to the American autumn feast; the specific holiday grew out of harvest thanksgiving traditions in colonial New England, later mythologized around a 1621 Plymouth gathering, and wasn't fixed as a national annual holiday until the 19th century, during the Civil War era.