debacle

noun

Etymology: 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.

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

   “The event proved to be a great debacle for the partisans of this prognosticator.”

   “The result is a military approach which maximizes political tensions with Russia […] and lays the ground for a military debacle.”

2. A breaking up of a natural dam, usually made of ice, by a river and the ensuing rush of water.

   “[…] 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, […]”

   “For several months after the debacle just described, the river Dranse, having no settled channel, shifted its position continually […]”