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fiasco: msg#00004culture.language.word-of-the-day
**************************************************************** Ready to march? Strike up the brand with a 14-day free trial to Merriam-Webster Unabridged! http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/unabridged_sub.pl?refr=U_wod **************************************************************** The Word of the Day for March 5 is: fiasco \fee-ASK-oh\ noun : a complete failure Example sentence: When she heard that the DJ was running late and the caterers were lost, Mary just knew that the party she'd been planning for weeks was going to be an utter fiasco. Did you know? English speakers picked up "fiasco" from the French, who 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 discovered a flaw developing in a beautiful piece he was working on, he would turn it into an ordinary bottle to avoid having to destroy the object. The bottle would naturally represent a failure of his art to the glassblower. This theory, however, remains without evidence to support it. You Are Subscribed As: GCLW-MW-WOD7@xxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, change your e-mail address or to subscribe to the html version of Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day, featuring audio pronunciations, please visit: http://www.startsampling.com/sm/wod/changeofaddress.iphtml (c) 2006 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated Merriam-Webster, Inc. 47 Federal Street P.O. Box 281 Springfield, MA 01102 *mf mwt 030506 GCLW-MW-WOD7@xxxxxxxxx mf* --- You are currently subscribed to mw-text as: GCLW-MW-WOD7@xxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mw-text-979910Y@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
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