different between fracas vs imbroglio

English

Etymology

From French fracas, derived from fracasser, from Italian fracassare, from fra- + cassare, equivalent to Latin infra + quassare.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?f?æk??/, /f???k??/
  • Plural: IPA^(key): /?f?æk??z/, /f???k??z/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?f?e?k?s/, /?f?æk?s/

Noun

fracas (plural fracases or fracas)

1. A noisy disorderly quarrel, fight, brawl, disturbance or scrap.
   • 1989, Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, Faber 1999, paperback edition, p. 16,

     And I recall also some years ago, Mr Rayne, who travelled to America as valet to Sir Reginals Mauvis, remarking that a taxi driver in New York regularly addressed his fare in a manner which if repeated in London would end in some sort of fracas, if not in the fellow being frogmarched to the nearest police station.

   • 1964, Philip K. Dick, The Simulacra, Vintage Books 2002, paperback edition, p. 37,

     The Oregon-Northern California region had lost much of its population during the fracas of 1980; it had been heavily hit by Red Chinese guided missiles, and of course the clouds of fallout had blanketed it in the subsequent decade.

Synonyms

• brouhaha
• donnybrook
• kerfuffle
• melee

Related terms

• quash

Translations

Anagrams

• Frasca, carsaf

French

Etymology

Probably an independent derivation from fracasser, from Italian fracassare. Alternatively directly borrowed from Italian fracasso, from the same verb.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?a.k?/

Noun

fracas m (plural fracas)

1. crash
2. din, roar

Descendants

• ? English: fracas

Further reading

• “fracas” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Galician

Adjective

fracas

1. feminine plural of fraco

Portuguese

Adjective

fracas

1. feminine plural of fraco

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian imbroglio (“tangle, entanglement, muddle”) (im-, alternative form of in- (“prefix forming verbs denoting derivation”) + broglio (“confusion; intrigue, fraud, rigging, stuffing”); see also imbrogliare (“to tangle”)), cognate with and probably from an earlier form of French embrouiller (“to embroil, muddle”) (em- (“em-”), a form of en- (“en-, prefix meaning ‘caused’”) + brouiller (“to confuse, mix up”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?b???lj??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?b?o?ljo?/
• Rhymes: -??lj??
• Hyphenation: im?bro?glio

Noun

imbroglio (plural imbroglios or imbrogli)

1. A complicated situation; an entanglement.
   • 2013, Frances Whiting, chapter 19, in Walking on Trampolines, Sydney, N.S.W.: Pan Macmillan Australia, ?ISBN; trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Gallery Books, February 2015, ?ISBN page 207:

     I could have phoned you with all this, Tallulah, but knowing you as I have over the years, when you and I have both been a party to some of Duncan's little imbroglios, I thought I should talk to you in person.

Synonyms

• snarl (noun)

Related terms

Translations

French

Etymology

From Italian imbroglio (“tangle”), from imbrogliare (“to tangle”), cognate with and probably from an earlier form of French embrouiller (“muddle, embroil”), from em- (“en-”) + brouiller. Doublet of embrouille.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.b??.ljo/

Noun

imbroglio m (plural imbroglios)

1. a complicated situation; an entanglement

Further reading

• “imbroglio” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Etymology

From imbrogliare (“to tangle”), cognate with and probably from an earlier form of French embrouiller (“muddle, embroil”), from em- (“en-”) + brouiller.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /im?br??.?o/
• Hyphenation: im?bro?glio

Noun

imbroglio m (plural imbrogli)

1. tangle, entanglement, muddle, scrape

   Synonyms: impiccio, intrico, pasticcio

2. cheat, swindle, trick, diddle, fraud

   Synonyms: frode, inganno, truffa

Related terms

Verb

imbroglio

1. first-person singular present indicative of imbrogliare