fiasco

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fiasco (“bottle, flask”), from Late Latin flasca, flascō (“bottle, container”), from Frankish flaska (“bottle, flask”) from Proto-Germanic *flaskǭ (“bottle”); see flask. “Failure” sense comes through French faire fiasco from Italian theatrical slang far fiasco (literally “to make a bottle”), of unknown origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɪˈæs.kəʊ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

A fiasco of Chianti (sense 3)

fiasco (plural fiascos or fiascoes)

1. A sudden or unexpected failure.
2. A ludicrous or humiliating situation. Some effort that went quite wrong.

   Synonym: debacle

3. A wine bottle in a (usually straw) jacket.

References

• Concise Oxford Dictionary, s. v. fiasco.
• Compact Oxford English Dictionary on-line.
• The Word Detective, Issue of Oct 30, 2001.

Further reading

• Fiasco (bottle) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Facios, cafiso

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /fiˈas.ko/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /fiˈas.ku/

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiascos)

1. fiasco (situation)

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fiasco. Doublet of flasque.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fjas.ko/

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiascos)

1. fiasco (situation)
2. fiasco (bottle)

Further reading

• “fiasco” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Etymology

From Late Latin flasco, flasca (“bottle, container”), from Old Frankish *flaska (“bottle, flask”), from Proto-Germanic *flaskǭ (“bottle”), from Proto-Germanic *flehtaną (“to plait”), from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to weave, braid”). Akin to Old High German flasca (“flask”), Old English flasce, flaxe (“bottle”). More at flask.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈfjäs̪ːko]

• audio

  (file)

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiaschi)

1. flask
2. fiasco
3. flagon
4. (figuratively) debacle, failure

Anagrams

• fascio, fasciò, sfocai, sfocia

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiascos)

1. fiasco (ludicrous or humiliating situation)

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiascos)

1. fiasco