Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A complete failure.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A flask; a bottle. See flask.
- n. A failure in a musical or dramatic performance; an ignominious failure of any kind; a complete breakdown.
Wiktionary
- n. A ludicrous or humiliating failure. Some effort that went quite wrong.
- n. A wine bottle in a (usually straw) jacket.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A complete or ridiculous failure, esp. of a musical performance, or of any pretentious undertaking.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a sudden and violent collapse
Etymologies
- French, from Italian fare fiasco, to make a bottle, fail, from fiasco, bottle (perhaps translation of French bouteille, bottle, error, used by the French for linguistic errors committed by Italian actors on the 18th-century French stage), from Late Latin flascō; see flask.
Examples
“Tell me again how this fiasco is the Republicans 'fault? stan”
“In short, I believe that part of this fiasco is a plot to see Dr. Brown scapegoated and his Premiership ended.”
Global Voices in English » Bermuda, USA, UK: Fallout over Guantanamo
“That Facebook lent its name and reputation to this fiasco is amazing.”
“The only White House figure to take any responsibility for the fiasco is the former Bush-Cheney pollster Matthew Dowd, who in March expressed remorse for furthering a war he now deems a mistake.”
“The one thing I do take as a silver lining from this fringe fiasco is the fact that the longer a media outlet gives credence to this garbage, the less credibility it has in my view, and I needn't waste my time paying attention to them in the future.”
“As the Minister responsible for this fiasco is Jack Straw, why wasn't he available to respond to pertinent questions?”
“One of the really discouraging things about the whole fiasco is that the law was so lengthy and so hard to read that virtually no one read it except for congressional staffers and think tank types.”
The “I have been requested to put up an open thread” Friday Open Thread. | RedState
“I think this latest fiasco is victimizing the victim again who has apparently moved on with her life.”
“In particular, the Ford Explorer roll-over fiasco from a few years ago which led to Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and Tire-Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) being mandatory on new cars.”
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » In Case You Didn’t Already Know that California has Lost It
“Did we learn nothing from that rediculous Sarah Palin fiasco? sdtangler”
Clinton: Vetting process for administration jobs 'a nightmare'
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fiasco’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Headlines & Newsmakers
frugality, environment, extinction, bible, killer, jazz, cloning, dead, god, moon, global warming, bailout and 338 more...
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Containers
Stuff that holds other stuff.
cardboard box, jar, filing cabinet, safe deposit box, cupboard, wardrobe, jewel case, briefcase, locker, canopic jar, chest of drawers, paper sack and 203 more...
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permanent foreign residents in English
Foreign words and phrases that are perfectly acceptable to use in formal English writing, but still maintain the aura of foreignness. They do not enjoy full citizenship, but remain "alien residents...
prima facie, a priori, a posteriori, avant la lettre, corpus delicti, l'esprit de l'esc..., sans-culotte, memento mori, gesamtkunstwerk, amour propre, guru, deja vu and 25 more...
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word heroin
Words that are a rush both to look at and to say.
smack, incarnadine, expiate, cutty sark, travesty, dona nobis pacem, syllabub, incandescent, firmament, zanzibar, fiasco, turbulent and 8 more...
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That Could Have Gone Better
dud, flop, fiasco, debacle, failure, learning experience, wash, doa, epic fail, bomb, crash and burn, bungle and 35 more...
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The pretty ones
fiery, lithe, languorous, wax lyrical, resplendent, pithy, gossamer, loquacious, flummox, eschew, ardor, epiphany and 16 more...
Irwin Chen Here's a somewhat satisfying article on the mystery surrounding the etymology of fiasco.
http://blog.oup.com/2008/04/fiasco/ Nov 8, 2009
jkalina I believe one theory about the etymology of this word is that it comes from glass blowing. After failing to make an intricate bit of the glass blowing art the blower has only one choice - take a big breath and make the thing into a common bottle: a fiasco. Sep 28, 2009
seanahan Apparently both English, Spanish, and French (among others) borrowed this from Italian. Oct 23, 2007
frangarnes fracaso, decepción // Similar meaning: chasco Oct 22, 2007