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Posted By: Max Quordlepleen . - 08/12/00 09:05 AM


No, but welcome, Max. Care to explain your screen name?

My guess is that the change came naturally, due to how very
difficult it must be to learn to make one.

I never noticed this strange meaning: already in Italian "Fare fiasco" means to have a failure, to not succeed in something: I will check my dictionary, and I will ask someone.
Ciao
Emanuela

Posted By: Max Quordlepleen . - 08/12/00 11:50 AM
I don't know too -- actually, the origin of this usage is unknown or obscure, but here's a link with a couple of fanciful possibilities:

http://www.latin.about.com/homework/latin/library/blverbF-J.htm#fiasco

i've heard somewhere that it came from problems in the italian wine industry. so many more bottles of certain wines were sold than made (and i believe still are sometimes) that a fiasco came to mean a situation where rules had no effect.

Posted By: Max Quordlepleen . - 08/12/00 07:48 PM
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