In the song Yankee Doodle, is he calling the horse or the feather "macaroni"?

Question

In the song Yankee Doodle, is he calling the horse or the feather "macaroni"?

Answer 1

He stuck the feather in his hat and called it macaroni. It could be a reference to the feather but I think he's calling his overall look macaroni. Basically the British were saying us Yankees were walking around like we're the greatest beings on the earth and attempting to make our own new trends and identities as if we know what we're talking about but we're just sad attempts to imitate Britain. So they were mocking us. Funny how it became so popular here in the U.S.

Answer 2

Macaroni in the 18th Century was a British way of characterising the way men on the Continent would dress. They were dandies or 'high society'.  By decorating his hat Yankee Doodle was commenting on his overall look as a European gentleman with a feather in his cap.

Answer 3

Neither. If you know the origins of the song, this line is basically saying that American colonists should be considered pansies.

Answer 4

The feather.  

I believe, but am not certain, that by calling it macaroni the song is reffering to a class of British "metrosexual" men, who were really into fashion, and were flamboyant.

Answer 5

A "macaroni", in mid-18th-century , was a fashionable person; the joke being that the Yankees believed that a feather in the hat was sufficient to make them the height of fashion.

Answer 6

He stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni.  Hope that helps.

Answer 7

Macaroni is referring to a fancy hat. In other words he's trying to make something seem better than it is (hat or democracy).

So, actually it's neither. It's the hat.

Answer 8

Neither, he's calling the cap with the feather in it "macaroni."  

In the 1770s, macaroni (spaghetti) was a food that only rich people saw.  It was equated with the finest things, the most fancy things, so when he came to town riding on a pony (an unruly horse, liable to bite and kick), he put a feather in his "cap" (not hat) which was usually made from the skin of a animal like a 'coon or 'possum, and called THAT macaroni.

In the song, Yankee is making fun of rich people by mocking their fancy ways.  By extension, he's mocking staid, conservative old people who want to remain British colonies instead of a new nation.

Answer 9

It actually referred to the dance he did after sticking the feather in his hat.  It was the New Englander version of the Macarena.