Cock feather in a bonnet for civilian attire.

**MacKenzie** · 21st February 14, 08:50 AM

Originally Posted by Tobus

I have it on good authority that it was a fellow named Yankee Doodle. He was apparently riding a pony. I'm not sure what was on his mind, but it may have been a small elbow pasta.

The internet can lead to some strange discoveries.

The song "Yankee Doodle," from the time of the American Revolutionary War, mentions a man who "stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni." The joke Dr. Richard Shuckburgh, British surgeon and author of the song's lyrics, was making was that the Yanks were naive enough to believe that a feather in the hat was a sufficient mark of a macaroni. Whether or not these were alternative lyrics sung in the British army, they were enthusiastically taken up by the Yankees themselves.

I've always assumed it was just nonsense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaroni_(fashion)

**Tobus** · 21st February 14, 03:18 PM

Wow, ya learn something every day! I always thought it was nonsense too.

A macaroni (or formerly maccaroni)^[1] in mid-18th century England, was a fashionable fellow who dressed and even spoke in an outlandishly affected and epicene manner. The term pejoratively referred to a man who "exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion"^[2] in terms of clothes, fastidious eating and gambling. Like a practitioner of macaronic verse, which mixed English and Latin to comic effect, he mixed Continental affectations with his English nature, laying himself open to satire

Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned here, especially for the American who goes a bit too far in emulating Scottish dress and mannerisms, "exceeding the ordinary bounds of fashion". As in, "mixing Highland affectations with his American nature, laying himself open to satire". Would we call him a MacErroney?

**ThistleDown** · 21st February 14, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by Tobus

Would we call him a MacErroney?

That is brilliant, Tobus. Screemingly brilliant! We no longer have any posers on the forum. We now have only MacErroneys

**MacKenzie** · 21st February 14, 05:23 PM

Originally Posted by ThistleDown

That is brilliant, Tobus. Screemingly brilliant! We no longer have any posers on the forum. We now have only MacErroneys

"That fellow's get up is MacErroneous!"

**Tobus** · 21st February 14, 06:32 PM

Originally Posted by ThistleDown

That is brilliant, Tobus. Screemingly brilliant! We no longer have any posers on the forum. We now have only MacErroneys

Just remember you heard it here first! Next time you see "that guy" who shows up to the Highland Games wearing a huge floppy hat with a three-foot long feather on it, wearing his great kilt, carrying a two- handed claymore, and generally looking like he walked off the set of a Hollywood production of Brigadoon, tell yourself, "ah, we've been graced by the presence of a member of Clan MacErroney".