Weird Words: Macaronic

MACARONIC (adj) (from Latin)—My mother was wrong. She always said that my obsession with pasta and pizza would inevitably lead to my marrying an Italian woman. Actually, macaroni was always my least favourite pasta. I was driven to angst by Agnolotti, teased by Tortellini and lusted after Lasagna, but in the front of my Rolodex was Rotelli, or "space-ships" as I always knew them. But I digress...

Macaronic is actually a literary word, and it refers not to pasta but to poems which include lines in 2 or more languages. Originally this was just Latin and English, like that cheery old classic, The Fear of Death Troubles Me by William Dunbar (1460? to 1520):

"I that in heill wes and gladnes
Am trublit now with gret seiknes
And feblit with infirmite:
Timor mortis cunturbat me."

Macaronics were very popular quite recently, amongst modernist poets like T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. Pound’s Cantos feature many different languages including Chinese. Critics may be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that he was just showing off.