Tenderoni

This article is about the food product and its derivative term. For other uses, see Tenderoni (disambiguation).
1950s advertising for Tenderoni

Tenderoni is an easy-to-make stovetop macaroni product trademarked and produced by the Stokely Van Camp Food Company. Since the its withdrawal from the US market, the name has evolved into an urban slang term for a younger love interest of either gender, or someone too young to talk to or become involved with.

Food product

The term Tenderoni was originally coined and trademarked in the 1930s by the Stokley Van Camp Food Company. The new pasta entered the pasta market as "Van Camp's Tenderoni." Tenderoni is a narrow, thin-walled, hollow piece of straight macaroni. The product was named Tenderoni because it cooked quickly, was "tender" enough without being starchy, and was considered a macaroni product. Tenderoni was particularly popular in post-war America during the 1940s and 1950s because the product was made from fortified wheat flour and was enjoyed by children. It was also inexpensive to make and sell.

Tenderoni remained in production through the 1970s until it was withdrawn from the market in 1981; the current trademark rights have been owned since 2004 by 200 Kelsey Associates, LLC of New Rochelle, New York.

Slang term

Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, which defines tenderoni as "a sweet young girl," dates the word to the 1980s, attributing it to black teenagers in the United States.[1] The word gained renewed attention when Bobby Brown used it in his successful 1988 hit "Roni" to describe a young beautiful girl.

The word is also used to describe young women, without the connotation of them being too young, as an alternate word for jailbait. This definition of the word is common in popular music. In the 1970s the word tenderoni was commonly used to identify a younger male or female that an older individual was interested in talking to or dating, or a younger person one needed to stay away from because of their age. It was not uncommon to hear someone say, "I have a tenderoni in my life," "That's my tenderoni," or "Don't talk to him/her because he/she is a tenderoni."

Appearances in popular culture

In popular music:

In television:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Green, Jonathon (2005). Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (2nd ed.). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 1423. ISBN 0-304-36636-6.
  2. ↑ Larkin, Colin (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music: Farian, Frank to Mezza, Don. Guinness. p. 1114. ISBN 1-882267-02-8.
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