- skip - Brewer’s

Fiasʹco

.

A failure, a mull. In Italy they cry Olà, olà, fiasco! to an unpopular singer. This word, common in France and Germany, is employed as the opposite of furore.

⁂ The history of the word is as follows:—In making Venetian glass, if the slightest flaw is detected, the glass-blower turns the article into a fiascothat is, a common flask.

A gentleman from North America (G. Fox, “the Modern Bathylus”) furnishes me with the following anecdote: “There was once a clever harlequin of Florence named Dominico Biancolelli, noted for his comic harangues. He was wont to improvise upon whatever article he held in his hand. One night he appeared holding a flask (flasco); but failing to extract any humour whatsoever from his subject he said, ‘It is thy fault, flasco,ʹ and dashed the flask on the ground. After that a failure was commonly called in Florence a ‘flasco.ʹ” To me it appears incredible that a clever improvisator could draw no matter from an empty bottle, apparently a subject rife with matter.

 

previous entry · index · next entry

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

previous entry · index · next entry

Feuilleton [feu-yĕ-ton]
Fever-lurdan or Fever-lurgan
Fever-lurk
Fey
Fezon
Fi or Fie!
Fi. Fa
Fiacre
Fian (John)
Fiars
Fiasco
Fiat
Fib
Fico
Fiddle (Latin, fidis or fides)
Fiddle About (To)
Fiddle-de-dee!
Fiddle-faddle
Fiddleback
Fiddler
Fiddler’s Fare or Fiddler’s Pay