Fiasco
PRONUNCIATION: f-sk, -äsk
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. fi·as·coes or fi·as·cos
A complete failure.
ETYMOLOGY: 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 flasc. See flask.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
Fiasco
I never realized that this word has such a colorful origin.fiasco
1855, theater slang for "a failure," by 1862 acquired the general sense of any dismal flop, on or off the stage. Via Fr. phrase fiare fiasco "turn out a failure," from It. far fiasco "suffer a complete breakdown in performance," lit. "make a bottle," from fiasco "bottle," from L.L. flasco, flasconem (see flask). The reason for all this is utterly obscure today, but "the usual range of fanciful theories has been advanced" [Ayto]. Weekley finds it utterly mysterious and compares Fr. ramasser un pelle "to come a cropper (in bicycling), lit. to pick up a shovel." OED makes nebulous reference to "alleged incidents in Italian theatrical history." Klein suggests Venetian glass-crafters tossing aside imperfect pieces to be made later into common flasks. But according to an Italian dictionary, fare il fiasco used to mean "to play a game so that the one that loses will pay the fiasco," in other words, he will buy the next bottle (of wine). That plausibly connects the word with the notion of "a costly mistake."
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous
Anonymous
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Re: Fiasco
Perhaps a bottle error occurred because the actors were hitting the bottle. French would have driven me to drink in high school it the drinking age had been lowered to 16.Fiasco
. . . (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 flasc. See flask.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
Hmmmm. Maybe we should lower the drinking age and raise the driving age so teens can get drinking out of their system before they learn to drive.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
When I reached legal age, I noticed that clerks and bouncers were more apt to check girls' IDs than boys'. This violated my sexist assumptions, but (I guess) it allowed in the people most apt to buy in quantity.
After I was ma'amed (a topic painfully explored on another thread!) I sometimes queued for a senior citizen working as a checkout clerk. He took his carding duties seriously, lugubriously scrutinizing the driver's licenses of everyone who came through his line with alcohol. They could be, clearly, his contemporaries, with heavily wrinkled faces and sparse, graying hair. He was not fooled. He still took the license and read it with the concentration of a Bible Codes conspiracy fanatic. That he had checked you out every week for a year was irrelevant. License, please, and the one-minute stare. It could have been irritating, but it always struck me as funny.
After I was ma'amed (a topic painfully explored on another thread!) I sometimes queued for a senior citizen working as a checkout clerk. He took his carding duties seriously, lugubriously scrutinizing the driver's licenses of everyone who came through his line with alcohol. They could be, clearly, his contemporaries, with heavily wrinkled faces and sparse, graying hair. He was not fooled. He still took the license and read it with the concentration of a Bible Codes conspiracy fanatic. That he had checked you out every week for a year was irrelevant. License, please, and the one-minute stare. It could have been irritating, but it always struck me as funny.
About 2 years ago, on the same day, I was carded at Wal-Mart when I bought some wine, and then asked if I was taking out a grandparents' membership at Health Adventure (I was with my then 10 year old daughter).
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous
Anonymous
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2578
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
- Location: Crownsville, MD
There are some liquor stores that card everyone regardless of age to avoid complaints of age discrimination. Also, it keeps them safe from the police who employ under-age but older-looking recruits to test for underage drinking.
The training scripts don't have to make sense in context, Perry, as long as they hit them all...
...
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1476
- Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:58 pm
- Location: Carolinia Agrestícia: The Forest Primeval
It must have made it, 'cause I bought it.Hey, Cacaseno! Wasn't the Fiasco a Fiat that never made it into production?
Actually it was a fun car until it became necessary to trace electrical circuits.
At that point it acquired the nickname "Marconi's Revenge".
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
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