Word Wednesday: Macaronic

After a bit of a hiatus, Word Wednesday is back! Actually, I am back, since I haven’t posted in a few weeks. I needed a rest following my blog tour. Anyway, when I saw this word, I knew it should be the next Word Wednesday, and therefore the perfect post to return to blogging regularly.

Here we go:

MACARONIC \pronounced: mak-uh-RON-ik\, which functions as an adjective and a noun:

Adjective

1. Composed of a mixture of languages.

2. Composed of or characterized by Latin words mixed with vernacular words or non-Latin words given Latin endings. e.g. “a macaronic verse” 

3. Mixed; jumbled.

Noun:

1. Macaronics, macaronic language.

2. A macaronic verse or other piece of writing.

Quotes

The tradition is even more significant in Folengo’s Italian works and especially in his macaronic writings. -- Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World

The macaronic mode swivels between different languages. I believe Beckett chose French against English for similar reasons to those of Jean Arp in selecting French against German.  – W. D. Redfern, French Laughter: Literary Humour from Diderot to Tournier

The journalistic multiplicity of voices found in the Magazine corresponded with the poetic multi-vocality of Fergusson’s macaronic compositions, texts that combined elements of neo-classical English and vernacular Scots diction.  – Ian Brown, The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature

Related forms

macaronically (adverb)

As may have happened to some of you, the first thing that came to mind when I saw the word was: mac and cheese, and of course Macaronic is related to the word macaroni. Specifically, the pasta is named after the Southern Italian dialect maccarone, which was also associated with a mixture of Latin and vernacular languages. (ha! bet ya didn’t know that).