fiasco
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fiasco
- /fiˈæs.kəʊ/ UK
- /fiˈæs.koʊ/ US
Where it comes from
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 fiascos · fiascoes · fiaschi · fiasci
- A sudden or unexpected failure. The event turned into a complete fiasco when the power went out.
-
A ludicrous or humiliating situation. Some effort that went quite wrong.
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
Similar: debacle
- A wine bottle in a (usually straw) jacket. 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
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: debacle, chaos, mess, confusion, failing, doom, fail, failure, setback, breakdown, disaster, accident, collapse, flop, defeat, farce
Translations
Talk about this word "fiasco." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/fiasco. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. fiasco. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/fiasco "fiasco." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/fiasco.Cite this
@misc{fiasco_2026,
title = {fiasco},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/fiasco},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
