Macaroni

The word macaroni is often used synonymously with elbow-shaped macaroni, as it is the variety most often used in macaroni and cheese recipes. In Italy and other countries, the noun maccheroni can refer to straight, tubular, square-ended pasta corta (lit. 'short pasta') or to long pasta dishes, as in maccheroni alla chitarra, which is prepared with long pasta such as spaghetti. In the United States, federal regulations define three shapes of dried pasta (macaroni, spaghetti, and vermicelli) as falling under the label of "macaroni product".

Etymology

In Italian, maccheroni refers to elongated pasta, not necessarily in tubular form. This general meaning is still retained outside Rome and in different languages which borrowed the word.

Maccheroni comes from Italian maccheroni (Italian: ), plural form of maccherone. The academic consensus supports the position that the word is derived from the Greek μακαρία (makaría), In turn, that comes from μάκαρες (mákares), meaning the 'blessed ones, blessed dead', the plural of μάκαρ (mákar), which means 'blessed, happy'; μακάριος (makários, from μάκαρ (mákar) + -ιος (-ios, adjective suffix)) and Μακάριος (Makários), 'Makarios' (Latinized form: Macarius), are derived terms. The many varieties sometimes differ from each other because of the texture of each pasta: rigatoni and tortiglioni, for example, have ridges down their lengths, while chifferi, lumache, lumaconi, pipe, pipette, etc. refer to elbow-shaped pasta similar to macaroni in North American culture.

However, the Italian linguist G. Alessio argues that the word can have two origins. The first is the Medieval Greek μακαρώνεια (makarṓneia), 'dirge' (stated in sec. XIII by James of Bulgaria), which would mean 'funeral meal' and then 'food to serve' during this office (see modern Eastern Thrace's μαχαρωνιά (makharōniá)—macharōnia in the sense of 'rice-based dish served at the funeral'), in which case, the term would be composed of the double root of μακάριος (makários), 'blessed', and αἰωνίως (aiōníōs), 'eternally'. The second is the Greek μακαρία (makaría), 'barley broth', which would have added the suffix -one.

In his book Delizia! The Epic History of Italians and their Food (2007), the British author, historian and academic John Dickie instead states that the word macaroni, and its earlier variants such as maccheroni, "comes from maccare, meaning to pound or crush".

The word first appears in English as makerouns in the 1390 The Forme of Cury, which records the earliest recipe for macaroni and cheese.