confetti

What it means

1. uncountableSmall 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.

   Now listen. Cleaning that thing with art gum would be like bombing Tokyo with confetti.

   1942 April 28, “Old Straw Hat”, in Fibber McGee and Molly, spoken by Molly McGee

2. rareuncountableEdible Italian sugarcoated 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.

   1870, Henry T. Tuckerman, in the Boston Transcript, quoted in The New York Observer Yearbook and Almanac, page 143

   3 more examples

   "Why, if you and Teresa, our own best man and maid of honor . . . oh, how wonderful that would be, to eat confetti at your wedding!"

   1959, Loren Wahl, Lorenzo Madalena, Confetti for Gino

   Emilio and Roberto had pooled their resources in money and had arranged with the cafe keeper for steaming thick chocolate, a slow-pouring syrup-like drink, the richest boccotoni, cream-filled heavy sfogliate, and almond confetti.

   1975, Garibaldi Marto Lapolla, The grand Gennaro, Ayer Co. Pub.

   There were large trays with assorted pastries and colored almond confetti for a wedding, and he remembered with a pang that this very day was the wedding anniversary, the day Pino and Maria had married (so long ago!) in Rome.

   1986, Anne Paolucci, Sepia tones: seven short stories, Council on Natl Literature, →ISBN

In a sentence

Now listen. Cleaning that thing with art gum would be like bombing Tokyo with confetti.

1942 April 28, “Old Straw Hat”, in Fibber McGee and Molly, spoken by Molly McGee

Where it comes from

1. Italianconfetti
2. Englishconfetti

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.