It occurred to me today that I really should be demanding my money back from this forum. I first posted to AWADtalk asking how "fiasco" came to mean what it does in English. No one had the bottle to answer me. The onliest other serious word question I asked was about the origins of the NZ usage of huckery, a usage not even recorded in the OED.
Since this place is now 0 for 2, I suggest renaming this forum simply, "Questions about Words".
This bulletin brought to you during the long dark teatime of my soul
Pathetic, quite pathetic. I really don't like to see a grown man like on the floors and drum his heels to get his way.
And, besides, I could find no mention of "fiasco" or "huckery" made by anyone on this board called "sjmaxq". However, in the interest of fair dos, here's "fiasco":
fiˇasˇco ( P )
n. pl. fiˇasˇcoes or fiˇasˇcos
A complete failure.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[French, from Italian fare fiasco, to make a bottle, fail, from fiasco, bottle (perhaps translation of French bouteille, bottle, error, used by the French for linguistic errors committed by Italian actors on the 18th-century French stage), from Late Latin flasc. See flask.]
This fron Webster's Unabridged 1998, so if it's garbage, at least it hasn't had much time to smell bad.
"Huckery" as in "the Huckery Mole" is the title of a book and nothing else accord to Google. Since I think that the use of "huckery" in association with anything other than "mole" is rather arbitrary and derogatory, I think you have assume that "huckery" means "bad" in the sense of "ugly", and also assume that it's so rare it's not even acknowledged by the slangmeisters ...
I have nver read (nor even heard of the book!) The Huckery Mole, but huckery, is what a huckster does.
Huckery is flim flam, grifting, sleight of hand, being conned.
A Huckster is master as such art work.
and i guess we have tricked Max into hanging out here.. year after year, waiting for an answer. I hope you'll stay now that you've gotten it!
>>fiasco<<
Bottle --> drunk?
Huckery --> huckster --> Huckleberry Finn?
***
BTW, I want my money back too!
not that I'm owed any, but how nice it would be!
Actually, Helen, huckery has a very different meaning here in Zild. It means decrepit, worn-out, threadbare, run-down, etc. Googling it suggests that this usage may not be common in other Englishg-speaking countries, or even on the wrong side of the Tasman.
not that I'm owed any, but how nice it would be!If there was any value placed on "qualia" around here, you'd go to the top of the heap, inselpeter.
I'm still intrigued by your masterstroke in creating an entire scene out of a single word: "Out!". And I do mean that sincerely.
No false gnattery.
Cuz - isn't huckery what they make hockey stucks out of?
stales
isn't huckery what they make hockey stucks out of?No. They make them out of ash, the better to kick ash on the ice.
Haven't you been following all the ash-sticking lately?
Have you gone bats?Yeah, Louisville Sluggers.
To languagehat, who managed to track this one down for me:
In reply to:
Used orally from the 1970s but the first written citation we have is
1988. It could have originated from a corrupted form of pakaru (Maori)
meaning broken or ruined.
Dianne B
Dr Dianne Bardsley
Manager/Lexicographer
New Zealand Dictionary Centre
Victoria University of Wellington
PO Box 600
Wellington NZ
The word Fiasko is used in German in the same sense as in English, and though the connection with the Italian bottle is generally recognised, there is no real consensus about how the word acquired its present meaning.
Vernon, I assume you are replying as to huckery, not fiasco?
Yep. sjmaxq asked me to try to find something out about it. Somebody here recommended languagehat, and it worked.
