Spaghetti is sometimes considered the typical Italian dish. It is a form of long, thin round pasta, frequently served in a marinara (tomato) sauce with meatballs or some other meat.
The word is the plural of the Italian word spaghetto, which is a diminutive of spago, meaning string, or twine. Therefore, literally, the word spaghetti means little strings. It is, however, normal to treat it as an uncountable noun in English, and say "this spaghetti is nice" rather than "these spaghetti are nice." Similarly, to speak of an individual strand, we would say "there's a piece of spaghetti on the floor" rather than "there's a spaghetto on the floor."
The term is sometimes used to refer to Italians in a derogatory way, e.g. as in Spaghetti Western.
Legend has it that Marco Polo brought the recipe for spaghetti back from China; however there is evidence that pasta has been made in Italy at least since the 4th century BC.
Eating spaghetti with a fork and a spoon is perfectly polite, being the traditional Neapolitan habit. However, many other Italians consider the proper way to eat it to be with just a fork, or with the help of the edge of the knife at the very most, like any other dish.
