Do you speak a little Italian when you say 'macaroni'?

'Macaroni' is a word borrowed from Italian 'macaroni'. The word entered the English language some time around 1599.

macaroni [noun] [1599]

• pasta made from semolina and shaped in the form of slender tubes
• a member of a class of traveled young Englishmen of the late 18th and early 19th centuries who affected foreign ways
• an affected young man
• fop
• macaroni penguin

See 'macaroni' on the Loan Words Map

See more loan words from Italian.

Etymology: Italian 'maccheroni' plural of 'maccherone' from Italian dialect 'maccarone' dumpling, macaroni

See more loan words from 1500s.