fiasco

English

WOTD – 9 November 2007

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fiasco (“bottle, flask”), from Late Latin flasca, flascō (“bottle, container”), from Frankish *flaskā (“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 uncertain origin; perhaps from an expression fare il fiasco, meaning to play a game with the forfeit that the loser will buy the next bottle or round of drinks. Doublet of flacon, flagon, and flask.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fiˈæs.kəʊ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /fiˈæs.koʊ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

A fiasco of Chianti (sense 3)

fiasco (plural fiascos or fiascoes or fiaschi or (hypercorrect) fiasci)

1. A sudden or unexpected failure.

   The event turned into a complete fiasco when the power went out.

   His speech was a fiasco that left the audience confused.

   • 1898, Clement Fezandié, Through the Earth:

     "Well, doctor," said Mr. Curtis, heartily, "I am glad for your sake that the financial part of the enterprise has succeeded so well, because, the more I think over the scheme, the more I am convinced that it will prove a complete fiasco in practice. And that reminds me that there is one question which I wish to ask you."

2. A ludicrous or humiliating situation. Some effort that went quite wrong.

   Synonym: debacle

   • 1920, Edward Frederic Benson, Queen Lucia:

     There was the fiasco about Olga coming to the tableaux, which was the cause of her sending that very tart reply, via Miss Lyall, to Lady Ambermere's impertinence, and the very next morning, Lady Ambermere, coming again into Riseholme, perhaps for that very purpose, had behaved to Lucia as Lucia had behaved to the moon, and cut her. That was irritating, but the counter-irritant to it had been that Lady Ambermere had then gone to Olga's, and been told that she was not at home, though she was very audibly practising in her music-room at the time.

3. A wine bottle in a (usually straw) jacket.
   • 1929 May–October, Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, 1st British edition, London: Jonathan Cape […], published 1929, →OCLC:

     I sent for the porter and when he came I told him in Italian to get me a bottle of Cinzano at the wine shop, a fiasco of chianti and the evening papers. He went away and brought them wrapped in newspaper, unwrapped them and, when I asked him to, drew the corks and put the wine and vermouth under the bed.

Translations

ludicrous or humiliating situation

• Bulgarian: фиа́ско (bg) m (fiásko)
• Catalan: fiasco (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 慘敗 / 惨败 (zh) (cǎnbài)

• Czech: fiasko (cs) n
• Danish: fiasko (da) c
• Esperanto: fiasko (eo), fuŝafero
• Finnish: fiasko (fi)
• French: fiasco (fr) m
• German: Fiasko (de) n
• Greek: φιάσκο (el) n (fiásko)

  Ancient: διατροπή f (diatropḗ)

• Hungarian: fiaskó (hu)
• Icelandic: fíaskó n
• Italian: fiasco (it) m
• Japanese: わや (waya)
• Latvian: fiasks m
• Macedonian: фија́ско n (fijásko)
• Maori: hanepītanga
• Norwegian: fiasko m
• Polish: fiasko (pl) n, klęska (pl) f, poruta (pl) f (colloquial)
• Portuguese: fiasco (pt) m, fracasso (pt) m
• Russian: фиа́ско (ru) (fiásko)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: фијаско m

  Roman: fijasko (sh) m

• Slovak: fiasko m
• Slovene: fiasko m
• Spanish: fiasco (es) m, fracaso (es) m
• Swedish: fiasko (sv) n, (colloquially) pannkaka (sv) c
• Turkish: fiyasko (tr)
• Ukrainian: фиа́ско m (fyásko)

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, fascio-

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fiasco.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [fiˈas.ku]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [fiˈas.ko]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiascos)

1. fiasco (situation)

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French fiasco, from Italian fiasco

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fiˈɑs.koː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fi‧as‧co
• Rhymes: -ɑskoː

Noun

fiasco n (plural fiasco's, diminutive fiascootje n)

1. fiasco, debacle

Descendants

• → Indonesian: fiasko

References

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “fiasco”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fiasco. Doublet of flacon and flasque.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fjas.ko/

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiascos)

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

Further reading

• “fiasco”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology

From Late Latin flascō, 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”). Doublet of flacone. More at flask.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfjas.ko/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -asko
• Hyphenation: fià‧sco

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiaschi)

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

Related terms

• fiasca
• fiaschetteria

Descendants

• → Danish: fiasko
• → English: fiasco
• → French: fiasco
• → Polish: fiasko
• → Portuguese: fiasco
• → Spanish: fiasco
• → Swedish: fiasko
• → Turkish: fiyasko

Anagrams

• cafiso, fascio, fasciò, sfocai, sfocia

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fiasco, from Late Latin flascō. Doublet of frasco.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /fiˈas.ku/ [fɪˈas.ku], (faster pronunciation) /ˈfjas.ku/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /fiˈas.ku/ [fɪˈas.ku], (faster pronunciation) /ˈfjas.ku/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /fiˈaʃ.ku/ [fɪˈaʃ.ku], (faster pronunciation) /ˈfjaʃ.ku/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /fiˈas.ko/ [fɪˈas.ko], (faster pronunciation) /ˈfjas.ko/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈfjaʃ.ku/

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -asku, (Portugal, Rio de Janeiro) -aʃku
• Hyphenation: fi‧as‧co

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiascos)

1. fiasco (ludicrous or humiliating situation)

   Synonym: fracasso

See also

• frasco
• chasco

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fiasco. Doublet of flacon.

Noun

fiasco n (uncountable)

1. fiasco.

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	fiasco	fiascoul
genitive-dative	fiasco	fiascoului
vocative	fiascoule

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fiasco. Doublet of frasco.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfjasko/ [ˈfjas.ko]
• Rhymes: -asko
• Syllabification: fias‧co

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiascos)

1. fiasco

   Synonym: fracaso

Further reading

• “fiasco”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024