Fiasco – a story of wine and plays

Hello,

Today’s word is fiasco. I’m researching Old Norse words in English for my book “Words The Vikings Gave Us” and was enjoying “Words We Use” by Diarmaid Ó Muirithe (based on his language columns for the Irish Times) when I came across his linking of fiasco to bottles of wine. As a lover of both wine and words, I had to investigate.

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An empty flasco

Fiasco entered English in 1855 and by 1862 is was being used to describe any disastrous flop, but in the beginning it was linked to flops in the theatrical world. It came to English from the French phrase “faire fiasco” – to make a fiasco – which originated as an Italian phrase “far fiasco” – to suffer a complete breakdown in performance – but which literally translates as “to make a bottle” as flasco is the Latin for bottle. It’s related to flask, as you might expect.

Now in slang here we’ve got the idea of “bottling it” to describe somebody being too afraid to do something, although it’s not confined to actors. I can’t help wondering if there’s any connection.

Naturally with such vivid mental images of bottles and disgruntled audiences it’s hard to avoid the idea that they might cast a bottle on stage in disgust over a poor production of a beloved play (Italians are passionate about their culture) but proof is thin on the ground. There’s a chance that the phrase is a corruption of the Italian expression “fare il fiasco” which describes game playing where the loser buys the next bottle/flask of wine.

Either way, the next time I encounter a fiasco I’m going to see if I’m entitled to a bottle of wine in compensation.

Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

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