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You are here: Home / Language / What does fiasco mean and Where does the word “fiasco” come from?

What does fiasco mean and Where does the word “fiasco” come from?

April 1, 2020 by Karen Hill

The Italian word “fiasco” means, in its literal sense, a flask or bottle.

But at some time there became current among theatrical people of Italy the expression, far fiasco, which, though it actually means nothing more than “to make a bottle,” was used with exactly the same meaning that we convey when we say, “to make a mess of; to fail,” or in popular speech, “to pull a boner.”

So fiasco, in English use, came to mean complete and ignominious failure, but not even the most profound scholar in Italy can explain why “bottle” became a synonym for “flop.”

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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