The elections for the European parliament this week were a “fiasco”, it was said, for both Labour and the Conservatives. But “fiasco” is the Italian for bottle or flask, so why has it come to mean a disaster, of the sort we seem to be permanently ensconced in?

This English use is first recorded only in 1855, and its derivation – still described as “obscure” by the OED – much exercised literary correspondents to 19th-century journals such as Notes and Queries. The most picturesque explanation sources it to Venetian glassblowing. Once upon a time, a gentleman visiting a glass factory asked to try his hand at blowing a fine specimen, but it turned out to be more difficult than it looked, and the misshapen tube he produced was good only for use as a common flask. He tried again and again, and the amused artisans crowded round him cheering: “Another fiasco! Another fiasco!”

This use then passed into Italian theatre, and pitch-sensitive audience members would shout “fiasco!” if an opera singer hit a bum note. It would add much to the gaiety of the nation if modern interviewers adopted the same tactic when faced with a dissembling politician.