macaroni

Meaning

Noun

1. (uncountable) 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.
2. (broadly, informal, obsolete, uncountable) Pasta, particularly thicker noodles, spaghetti.
3. (obsolete, uncountable) Synonym of gnocchi (“Italian dumpling made of potato or semolina”).
4. (countable, derogatory, historical) 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.
5. (Caribbean, countable, historical) A 19th-century quarter-silver dollar coin, typically a full 2-real coin or a quarter clipping of an 8-real coin from Central or South America.
6. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis) Ellipsis of macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus).
7. (countable, ethnic, slur) Synonym of Italian (“a person from Italy or of Italian ethnicity”).
8. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, obsolete) Ellipsis of macaroni tool.
9. (Scotland, countable, obsolete) Synonym of lizard canary.
10. (obsolete, uncountable) A mix of languages in macaronic verse.
11. (Australia, slang, uncountable) Nonsense; meaningless talk.

Adj

Chic, fashionable, stylish; in the manner of a macaroni.

Synonyms

pasta

spaghetti

🍝

dandy

fop

medley

noodle

noodles

sheik

snob

swell

beau

parison

coxcomb

Translations

macaroni

Makkaroni

macarrão

macaroni

maccheroni

macaronis

macarrones

makarna

macarrón

μακαρόνια

معكرونة

maccherone

μακαρόνι

pasta

Pronounced as (IPA)

/mɑk.əˈɹəʊ.ni/

Etymology

Cognate with Sicilian: maccarruni

In summary

From Italian maccaroni, plural of maccarone, obsolete variant of maccheroni (“macaroni, fool”), of uncertain origin. Variously derived from late Byzantine Greek μακαρία (makaría, “food made from barley”), from Ancient Greek μακάριος (makários, “blessed, favored by the gods”), and from maccare (“to bruise, to crush”), archaic variant of ammaccare, from Latin maccāre (“to bruise, to crush”). 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 Spanish slang for a similarly clipped coin.