Origin and history of macaronic

1590s, from southern Italian dialectal maccaroni (Italian maccheroni), plural of maccarone, name for a kind of pasty food made of flour, cheese, and butter, possibly from maccare "bruise, batter, crush," which is of unknown origin, or from late Greek makaria "food made from barley." Middle English knew the dish as macrouns (late 14c.) where the noodles were layered with butter and cheese.

Originally known as a leading food of Italy (especially Naples and Genoa); into the 20th century it was the only commonly known pasta amongst English speakers, and dishes such as chow mein have been described as "macaroni."

Macaroni was used in English by 1769 to mean "a fop, a dandy" ("typical of elegant young men" would be the sense in "Yankee Doodle") because the food was an exotic dish in England at a time when certain young men who had traveled the Continent were affecting French and Italian fashions and accents (and were much mocked for it).

There is said to have been a Macaroni Club in Britain by 1764, composed of young men who sought to introduce elegancies of dress and bearing from the continent, which was held to be the immediate source of this usage in English. Hence the extended use of macaroni as "a medley; something extravagant to please idle fancy" (by 1884); for which compare macaronic.