fiasco means A sudden or unexpected failure.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, fiasco ranks #1,121 of 42,747 for Qualifying.
fiasco is pronounced /fiˈæs.kəʊ/.
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.
noun
- A sudden or unexpected failure.e.g.“The event turned into a complete fiasco when the power went out.”
- A ludicrous or humiliating situation. Some effort that went quite wrong.
- A wine bottle in a (usually straw) jacket.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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