maccherone

Italian

Alternative forms

• maccarone (obsolete)

Etymology

Disputed. Possibly from late Byzantine Greek μακαρία (makaría, “food made from barley”), from Ancient Greek μακάριος (makários, “favored by gods, blessed”), but said by some to be from Latin maccāre (“bruise, batter, crush”) and massa (“bulk, mass”). Compare Sicilian maccarruni (“a single piece of macaroni”) and English macaroni.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mak.keˈro.ne/
• Rhymes: -one
• Hyphenation: mac‧che‧ró‧ne

Noun

maccherone m (plural maccheroni)

1. (foods) macaroni (type of pasta)

Usage notes

• Mainly used in the plural.

Derived terms

• maccheronata
• maccheronico
• maccheroncino

Descendants

• → Catalan: macarró
• → English: macaroni, maccaroni; maccheroni
  • → Japanese: マカロニ (makaroni)
  • → Korean: 마카로니 (makaroni)
  • → Scottish Gaelic: macaroni
• → French: macaroni
• → French: macaron
  • → Catalan: macarró
  • → English: macaron
    • English: macaroon
• → Piedmontese: macaron
• → German: Makkaroni

Further reading

• Pianigiani, Ottorino (1907) “maccherone”, in Vocabolario etimologico della lingua italiana (in Italian), Rome: Albrighi & Segati
• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
• “maccherone”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.