play cartoon-of-british-nobility
Word History

Why Did Yankee Doodle Call a Feather 'Macaroni'?

What's with his feathered cap?


Editor Serenity Carr breaks down the sartorial origins of the famous song "Yankee Doodle" and why it references macaroni.

Transcript:


Have you ever wondered why in the old Yankee Doodle song he puts a feather in his cap and calls it 'macaroni'? In the 1760s, a group of young well-traveled English men who prided themselves in their appearance, sense of style, and manners founded a club in London. At the time, macaroni was a new and exotic food in England and so the young men named their club the Macaroni Club to demonstrate how stylish its members were. The members themselves were called macaronis. And eventually the word macaroni came to mean the same thing as dandy, or "a man who gives exaggerated attention to personal appearance." Like one who wears feathered caps.

Up next

play hot mess
Hot Mess

 

Our research turned up two archaic literal meanings

play video between you and i or me
I vs. Me

 

'Between you and __'? Simple guidance for a tricky pronoun.

play video how a word gets into the dicionary
How a Word Gets into the Dictionary

 

What our editors are looking for when they enter words in Merriam-Webster.

play video ghost words
How a Ghost Word Appeared in the Dictionary

 

An imaginary word that snuck into the dictionary

play video title attorney generals
Is It 'Attorney Generals' Or 'Attorneys General'?

 

'Poets laureate'? 'Court-martials'? The curious history of postpositive adjectives in English.

play serial comma
The Serial Comma Explained

 

Why don't they call it the Merriam-Webster comma?