Fashion, faux-sophistication, youth culture, and 1700s gender panic

August 27, 2016 7:04 AM

Why did Yankee Doodle put a feather in his hat and call it "macaroni?" As you've probably guessed, the song is not about noodles; macaroni refers to a fashion trend in high-society England of the late 1700s. NPR's All Things Considered looked into the history of the rhyme with librarian and author Chris Roberts. But what happened to the macaroni trend? Atlas Obscura tells a story of youth culture, old men yelling at clouds, and social panic over the erosion of gender norms. (Previously: The Etymological Evolution of Dude)
posted by duffell (25 comments total)

In the 1770s, satirical prints like these proliferated, and they came to define macaronis in the public consciousness. Today, it is difficult to separate these caricatures from the actual macaronis. It is even likely that portrayals of macaronis were highly exaggerated; by some accounts, macaroni dress in the 1770s did not in fact stray too far from the norm.

I'm imagining a historian in 2507 trying to work out what "hipsters" were actually like based on the sorts of remarks people in 2007 were making about hipsters.
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:18 AM on August 27, 2016 [20 favorites]

I'm imagining a historian in 2507 trying to work out what "hipsters" were actually like based on the sorts of remarks people in 2007 were making about hipsters.

People not like me.
posted by Literaryhero at 7:26 AM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

* avoids roast beef at all costs *
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:33 AM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

So it was appropriated from the brits at Bunker Hill.
posted by sammyo at 7:54 AM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

I still like the incroyables and merveilleuses better. Fashion between 1750 and 1850 was a land of contrasts.
posted by sukeban at 7:56 AM on August 27, 2016 [7 favorites]

I was lucky enough to have read enough Georgette Heyer books and therefore been exposed to the concept of 'macaronis' as men who wore over the top clothes to not have been too confused by this line in the song, although I also young enough to have thought that dressing in pasta was somehow part of it.
posted by h00py at 8:23 AM on August 27, 2016 [12 favorites]

Wasn't this about the time that lawns were invented?
Perhaps to tell the macaronis to get off them??
posted by MtDewd at 8:42 AM on August 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

Wasn't this about the time that lawns were invented?
Perhaps to tell the macaronis to get off them??

Get you gone from my finely-appointed garden!
posted by duffell at 8:45 AM on August 27, 2016 [7 favorites]

I'd like to know what was the macaroni dish that these young men brought back from their continental tours. And what, after 20 years in Britain, it turned into.

Do children still learn songs like "Yankee Doodle" in school? It's kind of nice that there are songs (like "Ring around the Rosie") that all children of all generations know, and that they can grow up to learn what the lyrics actually mean.
posted by acrasis at 9:10 AM on August 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

his cane is inexplicably tousled

What?

*looks at picture*

Oh, tasseled.
posted by splitpeasoup at 9:11 AM on August 27, 2016 [5 favorites]

Possible equivalents to macaroni in my lifetime:

the strange lacy dress and eyeliner of rock stars in the 80s, such as Prince or even hair bands like Ratt, Motley Crue, etc

David Bowie and basically any glam rocker possibly including KISS

Mid-early-period rappers such as MC Hammer

The "Let's Get Physical" workout-wear-as-real-clothing look in the 80s. (more gender reversed)
posted by hippybear at 9:17 AM on August 27, 2016

Great post.
posted by painquale at 9:24 AM on August 27, 2016

acrasis - on macaroni the food, there is a recipe for macaroni with cheese in a 1769 English cookbook which sounds pretty much like what is done today: The Experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffald, p. 285. Here's an interesting blog post on macaroni the food which includes Mrs. Raffald's recipe.

Some bonus info.: Thomas Jefferson and macaroni.
posted by gudrun at 10:39 AM on August 27, 2016 [6 favorites]

History is all about panicking over long haired men and short haired women
posted by The Whelk at 11:11 AM on August 27, 2016 [30 favorites]

I genuinely get annoyed when peers talk about "kids these days"/hipsters/millennials/etc are ruining things/are worst than all previous generations. It's so obvious that has been the complaint about kids since there were kids. So I love trotting out historical examples like this.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:28 AM on August 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

The “macaroni” in question does not, however, refer to the food, but rather to a fashion trend that began in the 1760s among aristocratic British men.

On returning from a Grand Tour (a then-standard trip across Continental Europe intended to deepen cultural knowledge), these young men brought to England a stylish sense of fashion consisting of large wigs and slim clothing as well as a penchant for the then-little-known Italian dish for which they were named. In England at large, the word “macaroni” took on a larger significance. To be “macaroni” was to be sophisticated, upper class, and worldly.

I wonder whether the name for these Grand Tourists came most immediately from their taste for a particular food, or from French, Italian, and Latin terms and phrases they tended to mix into their speech and writing after they returned from the Continent:

Macaronic refers to text using a mixture of languages,[1] particularly bilingual puns or situations in which the languages are otherwise used in the same context (rather than simply discrete segments of a text being in different languages). The term can also denote hybrid words, which are effectively "internally macaronic". A rough equivalent in spoken language is code-switching, a term in linguistics referring to using more than one language or dialect within the same conversation.[2]

Macaronic Latin in particular is a jumbled jargon made up of vernacular words given Latin endings, or for Latin words mixed with the vernacular in a pastiche (compare dog Latin).

The word macaronic comes from the New Latin macaronicus which is from the Italian maccarone ("dumpling", regarded as coarse peasant fare). The term can have derogatory overtones, and is usually reserved for works where the mixing of languages has a humorous or satirical intent or effect. It is a matter of debate whether the term can be applied to mixed-language literature of a more serious nature and purpose.
…
The term macaronic is believed to have originated in Padua in the late 14th century, apparently from maccarona, a kind of pasta or dumpling eaten by peasants at that time. (That is also the presumed origin of maccheroni.)[3] Its association with the genre comes from the Macaronea, a comical poem by Tifi Odasi in mixed Latin and Italian, published in 1488 or 1489. Another example of the genre is Tosontea by Corrado of Padua, which was published at about the same time as Tifi's Macaronea.

posted by jamjam at 11:36 AM on August 27, 2016 [12 favorites]

I love the links to the hillarious fashion plates and cartoons!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 1:36 PM on August 27, 2016

Do children still learn songs like "Yankee Doodle" in school? It's kind of nice that there are songs (like "Ring around the Rosie") that all children of all generations know, and that they can grow up to learn what the lyrics actually mean.

I am not sure it is in school per se, so much as the self-sustaining kid culture that children in a society share without adult input. I walked past a schoolyard a few years ago and heard children singing "Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg." I of course knew the words from my own stint in the playground decades earlier, but I am sure no adult taught them to these kids any more than they did to me. It is oral tradition, passed on from one eight-year-old to another.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:40 PM on August 27, 2016 [10 favorites]

So many thoughts about this!

Firstly, when I think of macaroni the food, I don't think of elbow noodles but the fact that basically all noodles on the pasta shelf are labeled "enriched macaroni product." Jamjam mentions that maccarona was a dumpling. Not surprised. But, I like the idea of the word referring to people who mix language together to look fancy, because I think that's what they were doing with their clothes, too. They knew the foreign words would only be comprehended by others who traveled, and the same with their dress.

Secondly, this whole article fills me with a great deal of sadness. I feel sad that these men were mocked so very hard. I mean fashion was cray back then but those pics are super redic. Very harsh.

Thirdly, I am not surprised that kids learn Yankie Doodle, because, after all, kids have been learning it each year for the past 240 years. A kid last year, a kid 30 years ago, a kid 110 years ago, they all learned it. Probably will forever, for as long as we also learn the star spangled banner and the rest of the jingoistic claptrop we call "patriotism".

Finally, I don't see the connection between dress and gender identity but I realize it's SUPER IMPORTANT, and holy shit has been for probably as long as haircuts have been around. it's, yeah. it's tough. But it seems so fucking superficial.
posted by rebent at 3:37 PM on August 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

As I take pride in the homophonic puns I create in my second language (some of which are only accessible to bilinguals), I approve of jamjam's macaroni!
posted by oheso at 4:50 AM on August 28, 2016

It is oral tradition, passed on from one eight-year-old to another.

I just had that thought this morning, when my son said "nana nana boo boo" while playing. We didn't teach him the phrase, so he must have picked it up at school. I remember kids saying when I was his age.
posted by Fleebnork at 6:45 AM on August 28, 2016

Pepys used macaronic for rude bits in his diary.

"... and did tocar mi cosa con su mano through my chemise but yet so as to hazer me hazer la grande cosa..."
posted by Segundus at 8:22 AM on August 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

This is a damn good MeFi thread.
posted by Miss T.Horn at 9:48 PM on August 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's worth noting, then, that every time we sing or play "Yankee Doodle" as an expression of patriotism, or in any "patriotic" context (like a July 4th parade or political rally) we are only revealing our ignorance (a lot like this).

Do the Brits continue to laugh at us to this day? That's a long time to cling steadfastly to a misguided notion on such a broad scale.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:13 AM on August 29, 2016

I've taken classes with Prof. Rauser focusing pretty much exactly on these issues. Changing concepts of identity, and changing fashions of mid-1700s to early 1800s. Am at work now, but will write more once I'm home and can find my notes for citations. I love this stuff!
posted by Princess Leopoldine Grassalkovich nee Esterhazy at 4:12 PM on August 29, 2016 [1 favorite]