A fiasco is a complete and embarrassing failure, especially one that was supposed to be impressive or important. It often involves confusion, mistakes, and things going very wrong.
It comes from Italian “far fiasco,” literally “to make a bottle,” which was slang for “to fail” in theater performances. The exact reason is unclear, but it may refer to a clumsy actor being compared to a useless bottle.
The idea that “making a bottle” meant “total failure” shows how odd slang can become standard language. When people call something a fiasco today, they’re echoing old theater gossip about performances that bombed spectacularly.
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