fiasco

English

WOTD – 9 November 2007

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 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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fiˈæs.kəʊ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (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.

Translations

ludicrous or humiliating situation

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

• Macedonian: фијаско n (fijasko)
• 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)

See also

• fiasci (hypercorrect plural)
• fiaschi (Italianate plural; often considered pedantic)

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-

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Catalan

Etymology

From Italian fiasco

Pronunciation

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

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiascos)

1. fiasco (situation)

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fiasco. Doublet of flasque.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fjas.ko/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiascos)

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

Further reading

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

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Italian

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): /ˈfjas.ko/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiaschi)

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

Related terms

• fiasca
• fiaschetteria

Descendants

• → English: fiasco
• → French: fiasco
• → Polish: fiasko
• → Portuguese: fiasco
• → Spanish: fiasco

Anagrams

• cafiso, fascio, fasciò, sfocai, sfocia

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Portuguese

Etymology

From Italian fiasco. Doublet of frasco.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈfj.aʃ.ku/
• Hyphenation: fi‧as‧co

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiascos)

1. fiasco (ludicrous or humiliating situation)

   Synonym: fracasso

See also

• frasco
• chasco

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Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fiasco. Doublet of frasco.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfjasko/, [ˈfjas.ko]

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiascos)

1. fiasco

   Synonym: fracaso

Further reading

• “fiasco” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.