Fiasco

Fiasco in Italian literally means bottle.

It is from fiasco that the English words flask and flagon are derived.

A fiasco as we know it, a ludicrous failure or debacle, is thought to come from an Italian theatre saying. ‘Far fiasco’ or literally ‘make a bottle’, (which sounds similar to the English ‘make a botch of’) was slang for a complete breakdown in performance.

Nobody is quite sure how this slang came about - any suggestions would be welcome!

It could also explain the English slang to ‘lose your bottle’ meaning to lose courage.