Margaret Atwood
-ˈa-
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English speakers picked up fiasco from the French, who in turn adopted it from the Italian phrase fare fiasco—literally, "to make a bottle." Just what prompted the development of the meaning "failure" from "bottle" has remained obscure. One guess is that when a Venetian glassblower would discover a flaw developing in a beautiful piece they were working on, they would turn it into an ordinary bottle to avoid having to destroy the object. The bottle would naturally represent a failure to the glassblower, whose would-be work of art was downgraded to everyday glassware. This theory, however, remains unsubstantiated.
Examples of fiasco in a Sentence
Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 17 Sep. 2025
Long ago, most normal people concluded that this fiasco should be abandoned.
—Steve Forbes, Forbes.com, 17 Sep. 2025
Despite the Dodgers' loss, the night wasn't entirely a fiasco for Ohtani, who struck out five and also hit his 50th home run of the season.
—Julio Cesar Valdera Morales, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Sep. 2025
At times, this approach rippled through the interior department, as was the case with the Solène-embargo fiasco.
—Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 16 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for fiasco
Cite this Entry
“Fiasco.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiasco. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
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