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When we say the origins of the word pastiche are totally tubular, we’re not just being saucy—we mean it. In Italian, pasticcio (more specifically pasticcio di maccheroni) refers to a decadent pie consisting of a sweet crust filled with meat, truffles, béchamel, and macaroni—that famously tube-shaped pasta. Given such a jumble of (albeit delicious) ingredients, it makes sense that pasticcio in Italian has also long carried such additional meanings as “a mess or confused affair” and “a confused or mixed piece of writing.” It is these meanings that influenced both the English word pasticcio, in use since the 18th century, and the French word pastiche, which English borrowed in the late 19th century and which is now much more common. Both refer to hodgepodges of all kinds, but are most often applied to creative works—literary, artistic, musical, architectural, etc.—that imitate earlier styles or that are made up of parts from other works. A pastiche, you might say, takes a little bit of this and a little bit of that, not unlike the English language itself.
Examples of pastiche in a Sentence
David Weiss, Forbes.com, 8 Apr. 2025
The mood is a mix of ironic and sincere in equal measure, with plenty of pastiche and a heavy appreciation for the profundity of cultural detritus.
—Savannah Sobrevilla, New York Times, 7 Apr. 2025
While these books tend toward enjoyable pastiches, at least one rises to the level of an art form.
—Yvonne Zipp, Christian Science Monitor, 1 Apr. 2025
The target audience for The Studio probably will, though, because the series is loaded with inside-baseball references, from stars (Zoë Kravitz, Adam Scott) and directors (Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard) playing themselves to episodes built as elaborate pastiches to old movies like Chinatown.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 25 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pastiche
Cite this Entry
“Pastiche.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pastiche. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
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