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
Nancy Walecki, The Atlantic, 25 Oct. 2025
Ripa shared with the audience a recent airport fiasco when Consuelos' TSA PreCheck was temporarily unavailable.
—Janelle Ash, FOXNews.com, 22 Oct. 2025
Of course, if Jarrett doesn’t make it to Cologne in time, or if Vera can’t find the right piano for him before the curtain goes up, the whole thing could easily turn into a life-defining fiasco.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 17 Oct. 2025
The fiasco became a central focus of the sole debate between the two Virginia candidates last week.
—Emily Hallas, The Washington Examiner, 16 Oct. 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 29 Oct. 2025.
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