spaghetti
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: spə-gĕtʹē
ipa: /spəˈɡɛti/
ipa: /spəˈɡɛti/
ipa: [-ɾi]
rhymes: -ɛti
Forms: form: spaghettis
form: spaghettiing
form: spaghettied
form: spaghettied
Etymology: The noun is borrowed from Italian spaghetti, the plural of spaghetto (“dish of spaghetti; (rare) strand of spaghetti”), from spago (“cord, string, twine; thread”) + -etto (diminutive suffix). Spago is derived from Latin spagus (“twine”), probably from Ancient Greek σφάκος (sphákos, “apple sage (Salvia pomifera)”), probably from Pre-Greek.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: Visiting members expected to attend, and all will be properly spaghettied.
ref: 1940 January 19, “Local and General Items”, in The Blairmore Enterprise, volume XXXI, number 3, Blairmore, Alta.: W. J. Bartlett, →OCLC, page 8, column 3:
text: Pi Phis spaghettied their mothers and fathers last Saturday evening in the rooms.
ref: 1940 April 2, Helen Carstarphen, “Following the Socialites”, in The George Washington University Hatchet, volume 36, number 25, Washington, D.C.: Students of the George Washington University, →OCLC, page 3, column 2:
glosses: To serve (someone) spaghetti (noun sense 1).
examples: text: He spaghettied the referee when he landed on him.
glosses: To cause (someone or something) to become, or appear to become, longer and thinner; to stretch.
examples: text: All these are spaghettied together, as the following boxscore will show: […]
ref: 1914 March 7, “Bill” [pseudonym], “The Lame Duck: Views of an Innocent Bystander”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 186, number 56, Philadelphia, Pa.; London: Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 81, column 1:
text: "What makes you think this watercolorist and I would develop a romantic relationship?" Sissy's brow was spaghettied.
ref: 1976 April, Tom Robbins, chapter 20, in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (novel, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 64:
text: A twenty-foot ceiling was spaghettied by ductwork and ladders – not library rollers on rails, just foldable aluminium ladders – supplied for those willing to climb their way to erudition.
ref: 2004 May, Jonathan Kellerman, chapter 33, in Therapy, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 257:
glosses: To cause (something) to become tangled.
examples: text: I have "spaghettied" from Ventimiglia to Brindisi and I doubt if I have ever eaten as excellent spaghetti, certainly none better nor richer, than I have enjoyed in the home of a very charming Maryland hostess.
ref: 1932, “Foreword”, in Frederick Philip Steiff, compiler, Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland: An Anthology from a Great Tradition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page xvii:
glosses: To eat spaghetti (noun sense 1).
examples: text: The oldest Lark spaghettied down to a noodle and slithered through the letterbox-like hole at the bottom of the cistern.
ref: 2022 August 30, Thomas Sanders, Samuel Sanders, “Little K, Fire ’Er Up!”, in The Companionship in A Case of OCD, [United Kingdom]: Sanders Sound & Picture, page 361:
glosses: To become, or appear to become, longer and thinner.
examples: text: The cables spaghettied onto the shoulder of the technician.
text: These elegant instrument pods will bring all the instruments within eye range of the most nearsighted skipper, keep his bulkhead intact and eliminate all those messy wires spaghettiing around.
ref: 1977 November, Patty Slingluff, “Christmas Presents!”, in Murray Davis, editor, Cruising World, volume 3, number 11, Newport, R.I.: Cruising World Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 53, column 2:
text: [H]is instrument looked like a Rube Goldberg contraption. It was rigged from electronic bits and pieces, put together with wires that habitually spaghettied out of its grey metal box.
ref: 1979, Thelma Moss, “Kirlian Beginnings: Being a Tale of Fortuitous Trial and Error, All the Way …”, in The Body Electric: A Personal Journey into the Mysteries of Parapsychological Research, Bioenergy, and Kirlian Photography, Los Angeles, Calif.: J. P. Tarcher; Don Mills, Ont.: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →ISBN, page 78:
text: Canada's cities are different from America's— […] There are no freeways spaghettiing their way through the town.
ref: 1988 October 8, “Survival”, in The Economist (Canada Survey section), volume 309, number 7571, London: Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 16, column 1:
text: These four problems, spaghettiing through our minds and bookshelves, make for crippling limitations of literary sensibility.
ref: 2005, John Lennard, “Punctuation”, in The Poetry Handbook: A Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism, 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 108:
text: Call it what you will, but as soon as you think you've got your dish ready to serve, it spaghettis all over the place and you have to clean up the mess.
ref: 2006, Richard E[sterhuysen] Grant, The Wah-Wah Diaries: The Making of a Film, London: Picador, →ISBN, page 11:
glosses: To become tangled.
Derived terms: word: spaghetti up
word: spaghettied