confetti
/kənˈfɛ.ti/
Etymology
Borrowed (possibly via French) from Italian confetti (literally “confections”), used to describe sugar-coated almonds, and by extension things imitating them (like pellets of plaster), which were thrown in Italy during festivities like Carnival and weddings. (This practice is mentioned in English since at least the 1810s.) The French and the English adopted the practice of celebrating weddings and other festivities by throwing such candies, or (by the late 1800s) tiny pieces of colored paper symbolizing them, partially displacing their earlier practice of throwing rice.
confetti means small pieces or strips (streamers) of colored paper or other material (metal, plaster, etc) generally thrown about at festive occasions, especially at weddings and in victory celebrations. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 71 out of 100.
Why this word is great
CONFETTI — [Noun] Small pieces or strips of colored paper thrown at celebrations, originally sugar-coated almonds. From Italian confetti, plural of confetto (literally "confections, sweetmeats"), from Latin confectum, past participle of conficere ("to prepare, make, complete"). The word originally referred to sugar-coated almonds thrown at celebrations, later extended to the paper imitations. Unlike "rice," which carries the weight of an agrarian fertility charm, or "streamers," which imply an unbroken, ceremonial drape, confetti is pure, weightless effervescence. It is the polychrome blizzard against a blue sky, the stubborn glitter caught in a bride's hair, and the quiet, littered evidence in the gutters the next morning—a bright, brittle simulacrum of abundance, celebrating not by preserving but by gloriously wasting.
noun
- Small pieces or strips (streamers) of colored paper or other material (metal, plaster, etc) generally thrown about at festive occasions, especially at weddings and in victory celebrations.
- Edible Italian sugar-coated almonds, especially those which are used as part of a traditional Italian wedding.“… a pale and fair devotee of fashion who has left off eating confetti, and recovered her bloom.”
verb
- To scatter with confetti.