confetti
[kuh n-fet-ee for 1; Italian kawn-fet-tee for 2]
- (used with a singular verb) small bits of paper, usually colored, thrown or dropped from a height to enhance the gaiety of a festive event, as a parade, wedding, or New Year's Eve party.
- confections; bonbons.
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Origin of confetti
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for confetti
Contemporary Examples
Glass fragments from windows, street lamps, car windshields, and theater marquees littered the streets like confetti.
As we pulled back the sheets the bed was full of confetti in the Basque colors, red, white and green.
For the finale, models dressed in gold joined St. Vincent on stage, dancing as confetti fell from the ceiling.
Fashion’s Most Powerful Women: Victoria Beckham & Diane von Furstenberg Show at New York Fashion WeekErin Cunningham
February 10, 2014
Kelly Clarkson tearfully belting “A Moment Like This” while confetti falls around her?
Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, and Harry Connick Jr. Will Save ‘American Idol’Kevin Fallon
September 3, 2013
But when the confetti dropped it was Assaf who stood in disbelief, his life forever changed.
Historical Examples
Red flags, red placards like a swarm of confetti on the walls and in the air.
Erik DornBen Hecht
There were jubilant congratulations and showers of rice and confetti.
Jennie GerhardtTheodore Dreiser
There was all the folly with that confetti stuff and the rest of it to go through with yet.
The Forsyte Saga, Volume III.John Galsworthy
I thought I saw some confetti in that farmyard as I came up the lane.
TatterdemalionJohn Galsworthy
All night the air was thick with confetti, like snow falling off a rainbow.
Trooper Bluegum at the DardanellesOliver Hogue
confetti
- small pieces of coloured paper thrown on festive occasions, esp at the bride and groom at weddings
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Word Origin
C19: from Italian, plural of confetto, originally, a bonbon; see comfit
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for confetti
n.
1815, from Italian plural of confetto "sweetmeat," via Old French, from Latin confectum, confectus (see confection). A small candy traditionally thrown during carnivals in Italy, custom adopted in England for weddings and other occasions, with symbolic tossing of paper.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper