1681: Macaroni in Yankee Doodle Jul 22, 2019
No one thinks that 'macaroni' in Yankee Doodle line "he put a feather in his hat/and called it macaroni" is about pasta, but it's still quite odd sounding. As it turns out, it was British slang for a dandy, because it was common for well-to-do English gentlemen to take jaunts to continental Europe and come back with new French, or in this case particularly Italian fashions to show off. In reference to these Italian clothes, these people were called 'macaroni'.
