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macaronic

 - 4 dictionary results

mac⋅a⋅ron⋅ic

[mak-uh-ron-ik]
–adjective
1. composed of or characterized by Latin words mixed with vernacular words or non-Latin words given Latin endings.
2. composed of a mixture of languages.
3. mixed; jumbled.
–noun
4. macaronics, macaronic language.
5. a macaronic verse or other piece of writing.

Origin:
1605–15; < ML macarōnicus < dial. It maccarone macaroni + L -icus -ic


mac⋅a⋅ron⋅i⋅cal⋅ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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mac·a·ron·ic   (māk'ə-rŏn'ĭk)   
adj.  
  1. Of or containing a mixture of vernacular words with Latin words or with vernacular words given Latinate endings: macaronic verse.

  2. Of or involving a mixture of two or more languages.


[New Latin macaronicus, from Italian maccheronea, macaronic verse, after Maccharonea, title of a work containing such verse by Tifi Odasi, 15th-century Italian author, from maccherone, maccaroni, course food.]
mac'a·ron'ic n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

macaronic 
1611, form of verse consisting of vernacular words in a Latin context with Latin endings; applied loosely to verse in which two or more languages are jumbled together; from Mod.L. macaronicus (coined 1517 by Teofilo Folengo), from It. dial. maccarone (see macaroni), in allusion to the mixture of words in the verse: "quoddam pulmentum farina, caseo, botiro compaginatum, grossum, rude, et rusticanum" [Folengo].
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Encyclopedia

macaronic

originally, comic Latin verse form characterized by the introduction of vernacular words with appropriate but absurd Latin endings: later variants apply the same technique to modern languages. The form was first written by Tisi degli Odassi in the late 15th century and popularized by Teofilo Folengo, a dissolute Benedictine monk who applied Latin rules of form and syntax to an Italian vocabulary in his burlesque epic of chivalry, Baldus (1517; Le maccheronee, 1927-28). He described the macaronic as the literary equivalent of the Italian dish, which, in its 16th-century form, was a crude mixture of flour, butter, and cheese. The Baldus soon found imitators in Italy and France, and some macaronics were even written in mock Greek

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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