macaroni

Noun
US[mak-er-oh-nee]/ˌmækɚˈoʊni/4 syllables

Open English WordNet

Noun (2)macaronies, macaronis

  1. a British dandy in the 18th century who affected Continental mannerisms“Yankee Doodle stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni”Type of dandy, dude
  2. pasta in the form of slender tubesType of pasta, alimentary paste
Word of the day · Oct 6About this word
spuriousadjective

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Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Mac′a·ro′ni noun; pl. Macaronis (#), or Macaronies.

Origin: Prov. It. macaroni, It. maccheroni, fr. Gr. … happiness, later, a funeral feast, fr. … blessed, happy. Prob. so called because eaten at such feasts in honor of the dead; cf. Gr. … blessed, i. e., dead. Cf. Macaroon.

1. Long slender tubes made of a paste chiefly of a wheat flour such as semolina, and used as an article of food; a form of Italian pasta.

☞ A paste similarly prepared is largely used as food in Persia, India, and China, but is not commonly made tubular like the Italian macaroni. Edward Balfour

2. A medley; something droll or extravagant.

3. A sort of droll or fool. obsolete Joseph Addison

4. A finical person; a fop; — applied especially to English fops of about 1775, who affected the mannerisms and clothing of continental Europe. Oliver Goldsmith

5. pl. U. S. Hist. The designation of a body of Maryland soldiers in the Revolutionary War, distinguished by a rich uniform. Washington Irving

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54

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