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

• IPA^(key): /fiˈæs.kəʊ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (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)
• 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)

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-

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fiasco.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

fiasco m (plural fiascos)

1. fiasco (situation)

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fiasco. Doublet of flacon and 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 [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): /ˈfja.sko/

• 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

declension of fiasco (singular only)

	singular
n gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) fiasco	fiascoul
genitive/dative	(unui) 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 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28