Why does yankee doodle call the feather macaroni

The macaroni style consisted of a tight-sleeved coat with short skirts, waistcoat and knee breeches. Macaroni emphasized pastel color, patterns and ornamentation like brocaded or embroidered silks and velvet. This wig was usually garnished with a large black satin wig-bag trimmed with bow.

The feet were clad in red-heeled slipper-like leather shoes with decorative buckles of diamond, paste or polished steel. Additionally, as much ornamentation as possible was added with large floral nosegays, hanging watches, swords and tasseled walking sticks. Credit: Library of Congress.

An elite figure marked by the cultivations of European travel, wealth and taste. So what did the British troops, who first sang the song about their colonial cousins, mean when they said that Mr. Yankee Doodle stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni? Effect 99, views. See All Videos. Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms The same, but different. Take the quiz. Our Favorite New Words How many do you know? Spell It Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

What united many of the earliest versions of this song was the not-so-subtle mocking of colonists as nothing more than moronic, unsophisticated, country yokels. For instance, after George Washington was made commander of the rebel armies, some unknown individual wrote the following lyrics,. A slightly more familiar version to those of us today is also one of the earlier known versions, generally credited to Harvard sophomore and American Minuteman Edward Bangs:.

Father and I went down to camp, Along with Captain Gooding, And there we saw the men and boys As thick as hasty pudding. Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle dandy, Mind the music and the step, And with the girls be handy. There is indeed a kind of animal, neither male nor female, a thing of the neuter gender, lately started up among us. It is called a macaroni. It talks without meaning, it smiles without pleasantry, it eats without appetite, it rides without exercise, it wenches without passion.

In the end, there were possibly even hundreds of versions of Yankee Doodle in popular circulation during the American Revolution, some initially used by the British to mock their rebellious subjects. Yankee Doodle's cool with it. BY Arika Okrent. Yankee Doodle went to town Mm-hm, yeah. Riding on a pony