macédoinenoun · 19th century
Well attestedThe dish is named for a region that Europeans thought of as a patchwork of peoples.
French cooks used macedoine for a mixed dish from the middle of the eighteenth century, alluding to the many nations gathered under Alexander's Macedonian empire and still living side by side in the Balkan region that carried the name. English borrowed the word in the nineteenth century and quickly extended it to any confused mixture. The historical region is now divided among Greece, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria.
Named from the placeRead →