Did You Know?

It all began with macaroni. Our word pastiche is from French, but the French word was in turn borrowed from Italian, where the word is pasticcio. Pasticcio is what the Italians called a kind of "macaroni pie" (from the word pasta). English-speakers familiar with this multilayered dish had begun to apply the name to various sorts of potpourris or hodgepodges (musical, literary, or otherwise) by the 18th century. For over a hundred years English speakers were happy with pasticcio, until we discovered the French word pastiche sometime in the latter part of the 1800s. Although we still occasionally use pasticcio in its extended meaning, "pastiche" is now much more common.

Examples of pastiche in a Sentence

His earlier building designs were pastiches based on classical forms. With this work she goes beyond pastiche. The research paper was essentially a pastiche made up of passages from different sources. The house is decorated in a pastiche of Asian styles.

Recent Examples on the Web WandaVision itself was a pastiche of Wanda’s memories and old sitcom tropes held together by nostalgia, comic book canon, Kathryn Hahn’s chameleon talents, and the Marvel brand. — Angela Watercutter, Wired, "TikTok Duets Are Reviving the Exquisite Corpse," 12 Apr. 2021 Cherry was supposed to be Holland’s big grown-up Oscar play, but the Russo brothers’ PTSD drama is being savaged as a shallow Scorsese pastiche, netting a woeful 36 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. — Nate Jones, Vulture, "Oscar Futures: Why the Amazon Debate Won’t Hurt Nomadland’s Chances," 26 Feb. 2021 Hikers, unemployed 20- to 30-year-olds seeking purpose, and older, rich professionals turning away from their past came — and often stayed — for Beainy’s pastiche of quasi-religious utterances and aphorisms on life and how to live it. — Los Angeles Times, "Climate change and corruption endanger an ancient valley in Lebanon," 21 Feb. 2021 Fossils of Deinocheirus mirificus — a pastiche of Greek and Latin meaning 'unusual horrible hand' — were first unearthed in the summer of 1965 in the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia. — Sid Perkins, Scientific American, "Fossils Reveal "Beer-Bellied" Dinosaur," 22 Oct. 2014 The game’s story is a pastiche of genre cliches knitted together: an island that acts as a portal to another realm, an illness that brings with it a gift as well as a curse, madness, blood sacrifice, etc. — Washington Post, "‘Call of the Sea’: Strictly for hardcore puzzlers," 15 Jan. 2021 Instead of winking pastiche, the series presented surprisingly rich characters and themes — bullying, toxic masculinity, how past choices reverberate — plus some REO Speedwagon needle drops. — New York Times, "‘Cobra Kai’: Strike First. Strike Hard. Come Back for More.," 3 Jan. 2021 Her childhood was a cultural pastiche — a soundtrack of Aretha Franklin belting gospel music and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, singing Carnatic music, a classical style of southern India. — Tribune News Service, oregonlive, "Kamala Harris first woman, first Black, first Asian American vice president," 7 Nov. 2020 Her childhood was a cultural pastiche — a soundtrack of Aretha Franklin belting gospel music and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, singing Carnatic music, a classical style of southern India. — Los Angeles Times, "Kamala Harris makes history many times over as vice president-elect," 7 Nov. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'pastiche.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.