Confetti

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kənˈfɛ.ti/

Definitions

  1. Tiny, colorful bits of material are often scattered during celebrations to enhance the festive ambiance
  2. Small fragments of paper or similar materials are traditionally used to signify joy and festivity at events
  3. Small pieces of paper or plastic used to decorate or celebrate special occasions

Etymology: Ask for confetti at an Italian wedding and you will be handed sugared almonds. Ask for the paper kind and you need another word entirely. The almonds came first. Italian "confetto," plural "confetti," means a sweet or confection, from Latin "confectum," something prepared or put together, the past participle of "conficere." The same root gave English "confection" and, by way of French, "comfit." In Italy these sugar-coated nuts were thrown at celebrations. An account from Tortona published in 1845 describes a bridegroom returning from church to cheers, tossing sweets, hazelnuts and almonds to the boys who crowded around. At Carnival the custom turned rougher. Real sweets were costly, so revellers pelted one another with cheap imitations: pellets of plaster shaped like the almonds, which stung enough that prudent spectators wore wire masks. English writers were describing the practice by the 1810s, and the Italian word came home with their descriptions, possibly passing through French on the way. The French and the English then adopted the throwing itself, at weddings and other festivities, partly displacing their older habit of showering couples with rice. By the late 1800s the sweets had given way to tiny pieces of coloured paper that stood in for them. Rival claims to the invention come from northern Italy and from Savoy, where an engineer from Modane is said to have recycled paper used in raising silkworms. Wherever it began, paper confetti were flying in the streets of Paris by 1892, and the heavy plaster pellets were pushed aside. Italy kept its word for the almonds, which are still given out at weddings. Its paper version is "coriandoli," named after coriander seeds, which were also sugar-coated and thrown. In both languages, then, the paper is named after a sweet it replaced.

Synonyms: streamers, shredded paper, paper bits