1802.] Comments on Mafon’s Supplement to ‘Fohnfon’s DiGtionary. 207 
Upon the whole, Sir, having made 
much obfervation on the feathered part of 
the creation, and confidered the matter 
well, I am not partially but exttrely a 
JSriend to them au (the great voracious 
birds of prey, which feldom come under 
notice, excepted). If they eat part of 
our corn, or part of our fruit, fhall we 
grudge it, when they are the means of 
preferving the relt? God has -not given to 
us an exclufive right tothe whole: and, 
as the poet fays, 
The birds of heaven will vindicate their 
right. 
If therefore we would ac& confiftently 
with our charaéter, as good matters of the 
inferior world, or confiftently with our 
own intereft, we fhall cheerfully allow 
thefe our dependent /ervants (for fuch they 
are), their {mall pittance, and receive in 
return the benefits they will bring us, be- 
fides being cheared with their wild and de- 
lightful melody. j. de. Pike. 
Feb. 23, 1802. 
I 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
PESULTORY COMMENTS 02 MASON’S 
SUPPLEMENT fo JOHNSON’S DICTiO- 
NARY. 
[Continued from page 13, of Vol. XIII} 
MACARONI. 3 
HIS word, fays Mr. Mafon, derives 
from the Italian, and fignifies an 
egregious fop. Grant both pofitions, 
does it follow, that the term can with pro- 
priety be thus applied, if it has no fuch 
meaning in the literature of the Italians? 
From macco, peafe-pudding, derives 
’ maccheroni-~(in the provincial dialect of 
Naples, macaroni), the name of a yel- 
lowifh pafte made of the flour of /aragolla, 
one of the many Sicilian varieties of 
wheat, by fqueezing it in a moift ftate 
through a wooden cullender, or pierced 
cylinder, the orifices of which have in the 
center a wire or fkewer, which tubulates 
the extruded dough. The pafte breaks 
off in flaccid pipes, about a fpan long, 
and when dried in the air will keep for 
many years: fteeped in hot gravy, and 
ftrowed with {crapings of Parmefan cheefe, 
it is a favourite dith in Italy: nor is it 
- unknown in London, by the fame name. 
The water exprefied in making mac- 
cheront is remarkably turbid and fluggith ; 
hence the Italian proverb pia grofa dell’ 
acqua dei matcheroni, which is applied co 
a fluggith ftupid intelle&t.  Maccherone, 
too, faye the Vocabulary Della Cru/ca, is 
” 
ufed for a dullard, a blockhead: as in - 
Englith one fays, a brain of dough. Donne 
the fatirift writes, 
In dough-bak’d men fome harmlefinefs we 
fee. 
and ufes in a fimilar fenfe the word in 
queftion, r 
I figh and fweat 
To hear this macaroon talk on in vain. 
How then can the modern abufe of the 
word be accounted for? Onthe Mole at - 
Naples (is it allowed to echo fuch brothel- 
flang out of the Crypts of Cotytto?), the 
phrafe, cazzo di macarone, which is in 
fact pifturefque, may be heard among the 
failors: it is flung againft fuch as are 
fuppofed “‘ to want vigour when put to 
the fhift. By fome fea-faring people 
the words, no doubt, were brought to 
England, and applied, with decent abbre- 
viation, to thofe foplings of fafhion, thofe 
would-be bloods, whom the fons of Nep- 
tune are accuitomed to defpife. 
Macaroni then means (1) @ tubulated 
pafte ufed in cookery ; (2) a fluggifh-minded 
man; inthis fenfe it is oblolete: (3) @ 
Sluggifh-bodied man, a feeble libertine, a 
pretended rake, a fham debauchee, a fop ; 
in this fenfe it is not a very decorous 
word, ~ yt 
- Macaroon, in French macaron, the name 
of a cake made of almonds and fugar, is 
fuppofed by Richelet to derive from the 
Greek panas, bleffed, as it were the bread 
of the blefled, the ambrofia of the new 
Jerufalem. This is improbable; yet a 
cake of almonds muft have been invented 
and named in a Jand of almonds. There 
is, or was, a town, Macaria, in the ifland. 
of Cyprus ; perhaps Margaret of Henne-_ 
gan, the favourite miftrefs of Richard 
Lion heart, thence fent the receipt for make 
ing macaroons. 
Malengin.—From the Latin adverb 
malé derives the French adverb mal, idl, 
amifs. This adverb is much ufed in com- 
poiition by the French, as mal-adroit, mal- 
aife, malapre, mal-aventure, mal-bati, 
mal-content, &c. At a time, when our 
writers thought it a fymptom of refinement 
_to Gallicize, were introduced the fimilarly 
formed Englith words, mal-adminifirations 
malcontent, malpra&ice, malverfation, &cv 
which are yet rétained; and malapert, 
malengin, maltalent, malfeafance,&c. which 
are obfolefcent. Adverbs do not natu- 
rally coaleice with fubitantives ; it is only 
with verbal fubftantives, where continued 
action is implied, that they can with pro- 
priety form jun&tions. Mal-adminifira- 
tion, mal-practice, mal-verfation, are of 
Ee 2 this 
