debacle
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From French débâcle, from débâcler (“to unbar; unleash”) from prefix dé- (“un-”) + bâcler (“to dash, bind, bar, block”) [perhaps from unattested Middle French and Old French *bâcler, *bacler (“to hold in place, prop a door or window open”)], from Vulgar Latin *bacculare, from Latin baculum (“rod, staff used for support”), from Proto-Indo-European *bak-.
Also attested in Old French desbacler (“to clear a harbour by getting ships unloaded to make room for incoming ships with lading”) and in Occitan baclar (“to close”).
The hypothesised derivation from Middle Dutch *bakkelen (“to freeze artificially, lock in place”), a frequentative of bakken (“to stick, stick hard, glue together”) no longer seems likely due to the lack of attestation of *bakkelen in Middle Dutch and by it having the limited meaning of "freeze superficially" in Dutch.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK) IPA(key): /deɪˈbɑː.kəl/, /dɛˈbɑː.kəl/
- (US) IPA(key): /dɪˈbɑ.kəl/, /dəˈbɑ.kəl/, /deɪˈbɑ.kəl/
,Audio (US): (file) Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɑːkəl
- Hyphenation: de‧ba‧cle
Noun
[edit]debacle (plural debacles)
- An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences. [from early 19th c.]
- 1952, Boaz Cohen, Epistle to Yemen, translation of original by Maimonides, page 5:
- The event proved to be a great debacle for the partisans of this prognosticator.
- 1996, Richard L. Canby, “SOF: An Alternative Perspective on Doctrine”, in Schultz et al, editor, Roles And Missions of SOF In The Aftermath Of The Cold War[1], page 188:
- The result is a military approach which maximizes political tensions with Russia […] and lays the ground for a military debacle.
- 2007, “Statement by Peter Van Tuyn”, in BP pipeline failure: hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, page 46:
- The BP Prudhoe Bay debacle [the Prudhoe Bay oil spill] thus provides but the latest in a long line of reasons why leasing this region of the NPR-A is a bad idea.
- (ecology) A breaking up of a natural dam, usually made of ice, by a river and the ensuing rush of water.
- 1836, Henry De La Beche, How to Observe: Geology[2], page 69:
- […] so that in extreme cases the latter may even be dammed up for a time, and a debacle be the consequence, when the main river overcomes the resistance opposed to it, […]
- 1837, John Lee Comstock, Outlines of Geology[3], page 51:
- For several months after the debacle just described, the river Dranse, having no settled channel, shifted its position continually […]
- 1872, Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution[4], page 425:
- When this débâcle commences […] , the masses of ice, drifting with the current and unable to pass, are hurled upon those already soldered together; thus an enormous barrier is formed […]
Usage notes
[edit]- The older spelling with accents is no longer listed at all or only mentioned as an alternative in the online versions of most major British and American dictionaries.
Synonyms
[edit]- (An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously): fiasco
Translations
[edit]event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously
|
break up of a natural dam
References
[edit]- 2005, Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised), Oxford University Press, →ISBN
- 1998, The Dorling Kindersley Illustrated Oxford Dictionary, Dorling Kindersley Limited and Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 211
- 2006, Ed. Michael Allaby, A Dictionary of Ecology, Oxford University Press, →ISBN
- 1999, Ed. Robert Allen, Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage, Oxford University Press, →ISBN
- 1999, Ed. Jennifer Speake, The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English, Oxford University Press, →ISBN
Anagrams
[edit]Dutch
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- debâcle (before 1996)
Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]debacle m or f or n (plural debacles, diminutive debacletje n)
Spanish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from French débâcle, or from English.
Noun
[edit]debacle f (plural debacles)
Further reading
[edit]- “debacle”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28
Swedish
[edit]Noun
[edit]debacle n
- a debacle
Declension
[edit]Declension of debacle
See also
[edit]References
[edit]Categories:
- English terms borrowed from French
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- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Vulgar Latin
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- English 3-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/ɑːkəl
- Rhymes:English/ɑːkəl/3 syllables
- English lemmas
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- en:Ecology
- Dutch terms borrowed from French
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