Did you know?
When we say the origins of the word pastiche are totally tubular, we’re not just being saucy—we mean it. In Italian, pasticcio (more specifically pasticcio di maccheroni) refers to a decadent pie consisting of a sweet crust filled with meat, truffles, béchamel, and macaroni—that famously tube-shaped pasta. Given such a jumble of (albeit delicious) ingredients, it makes sense that pasticcio in Italian has also long carried such additional meanings as “a mess or confused affair” and “a confused or mixed piece of writing.” It is these meanings that influenced both the English word pasticcio, in use since the 18th century, and the French word pastiche, which English borrowed in the late 19th century and which is now much more common. Both refer to hodgepodges of all kinds, but are most often applied to creative works—literary, artistic, musical, architectural, etc.—that imitate earlier styles or that are made up of parts from other works. A pastiche, you might say, takes a little bit of this and a little bit of that, not unlike the English language itself.
Examples of pastiche in a Sentence
Chris Reed, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 July 2025
Bathed in a pink-pop glow, its pastiche of romance and horror collide in a viciously mischievous parable of technology and control that speaks to these most anxious times.
—Ew Staff Published, EW.com, 30 June 2025
The works were notional pastiches of real-world desperation.
—Glenn Adamson, Artforum, 1 June 2025
An opening sequence involving Yellowjacket cheerleaders (a reference to his Berkeley High School mascot) is a pastiche of a David Lynch films.
—Randy Myers, Mercury News, 20 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for pastiche
Cite this Entry
“Pastiche.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pastiche. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025.
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