debacle

English

Alternative forms

• débâcle
• debâcle (rare)
• débacle (rare)

Etymology

From French débâcle, from débâcler (“to unbar; unleash”) from prefix dé- (“un-”) + bâcler (“to dash, bind, bar, block”) , 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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /deɪˈbɑː.kəl/, /dɛˈbɑː.kəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /dɪˈbɑ.kəl/, /dəˈbɑ.kəl/, /deɪˈbɑ.kəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  ,

  Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːkəl
• Hyphenation: de‧ba‧cle

Noun

debacle (plural debacles)

1. An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences.
   • 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, 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.

2. (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, 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, 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, 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

• 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

• (An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously): fiasco

Translations

References

• 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

• belaced

Dutch

Alternative forms

• (before 1996) debâcle

Etymology

Borrowing of French débâcle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /deːˈbaː.kəl/, /dəˈbaː.kəl/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: de‧ba‧cle
• Rhymes: -aːkəl

Noun

debacle m or f or n (plural debacles, diminutive debacletje n)

1. debacle

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French débâcle, or from English.

Noun

debacle f (plural debacles)

1. debacle

Further reading

• “debacle”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Swedish

Noun

debacle n

1. a debacle

Declension

See also

• fiasko
• flopp
• misslyckande

References

• debacle in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• debacle in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)