Etymology

From - the type of round wine bottle, sometimes wrapped in straw, used traditionally for Chianti wine. The failure sense specifically derives via from the phrase , literally meaning “make a bottle” (used in Italian theatre to mean “failure in a performance”). This is similar to the informal British English usage of "to bottle out" meaning to "lose one's nerve".

An alternative interpretation of the Italian “far fiasco” as a meaning for failure can be traced to production of glass bottles by glass blowing. A mistake in the process would result in a bottle of irregular shape with protruding or enlarged base is termed “fiasco” as opposed to .

Noun

fiasco (plural fiascos, fiascoes)

1. A ludicrous or humiliating failure. Some effort that went quite wrong.
2. A wine bottle in a (usually straw) jacket.

See also

• fiasci
• fiaschi