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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
today's M-W word-of-the-day reveals an interesting sense drift for the word debacle, which originally meant a sudden breakup of ice on a river. http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
And the related older meaning of "the flood" for "debacle" I'm sure I've seen somewhere....
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Apres moi, le déluge..... I had never heard the "ice break-up" derivation before. debacle - "disaster," 1848, from Fr. débâcle "breaking up of ice on a river," figuratively extended to the violent flood that follows when the river ice melts in spring, from débâcler "to free," from M.Fr. desbacler "to unbar," from des- "off" + bacler "to bar," from V.L. *bacculare, from L. baculum "stick." Sense of "disaster" was present in Fr. before Eng. borrowed the word.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I never knew the ice-break-up meaning either--thank you. Now: why isn't it pronounced DEB-ah-cull?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Since verb is "bacler", no reason to attach the dé to the "b" of "bacler".
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