macaroni
/ˌmæk.əˈɹoʊ.ni/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.11 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A type of pasta in the form of short tubes, typically boiled and served in soup, with a sauce, or in melted cheese; a dish of this.
Uncountable
noun
A dandy or fop, particularly in the 18th century a young Englishman who had travelled in Europe and subsequently dressed and spoke in an ostentatiously affected Continental manner.
Countable; Derogatory
Example Sentences
- "Take half a pound of small pipe-macaroni."
- ""I can recommend this macaroni, for it is my favourite dish: I am very national. You will not take any? Ah, young ladies are, or ought to be, light eaters. Your ladyship will, I trust, set your fair companion an example.""
- "Paste made into strings like pack-thread or thongs of whit-leather (which if greater they call Macaroni, if lesser Vermicelli) they cut in pieces and put in their pots as we do oat-meal to make their menestra or broth of."
- "MACARONI... is a preparation of wheat originally peculiar to Italy, in which country it is an article of food of national importance. The same substance in different forms is also known as vermicelli, pasta or Italian pastes, taglioni, fanti, &c."
- "Maccaróni, a kind of meat made of round peeces of paste, boyled in water and put into a dish with butter, spice and grated-cheese vpon them."
- "He doth learne to make ſtrange ſauces, to eat ænchouies, maccaroni, bouoli, fagioli, and cauiare, becauſe hee loues ’hem; […]"
Etymology
From Italian maccaroni (plural of maccarone (archaic variant of maccheroni (“fool”))), of uncertain origin. Variously derived from late Byzantine Greek μακαρία (makaría, “food made from barley”), from Ancient Greek μάκαρ (mákar, “blessed; favored by the gods”), or from maccare (archaic variant of ammaccare (“to bruise; to crush”)), from Latin maccāre of the same meaning. Compare Sicilian maccarruni (“a single piece of macaroni”). * As a fop, apparently from the British Macaroni Club rather than from Italian use of maccarone for fools and bumpkins. * As a former form of currency, used to calque Spanish macuquino (18th-century colonial slang for a similarly clipped coin).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌmæk.əˈɹoʊ.ni/
- British English: /mæk.əˈɹəʊ.ni/
Usage
Inflected Forms
macaronis (plural)
macaronies (plural)
maccaroni (alternative)
more macaroni (comparative)
most macaroni (superlative)