The word macaron comes from the Italian maccherone or macaroni, which a 1650 volume, Les Origines de la Langue Française, defines as “a pasta dish with cheese.” A 1673 French-English dictionary defines macaron as “little Fritter-like Buns, or thick Losenges, compounded of Sugar, Almonds, Rosewater, and Musk, pounded together, and baked with gentle fire.”