Word of the Day

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3

Fracas

[FREY-kəs]Part of speech: noun

Origin: italian, early 18th century

• A disorderly brawl
• A loud, outraged discussion

Examples of Fracas in a sentence

• Both teams were disqualified after the fracas on the court.
• The town council meeting turned into a fracas over the new zoning proposal. 

About Fracas

If you throw yourself into the fray, you’ll find yourself in a fracas. You pronounce the first syllable of fracas like the word fray, with a long “A.” If you’re in the U.S. you’ll pronounce the “S” on the end, but drop it off if you’re using the Queen’s English.

Did you Know?

Fracas comes from the French verb “fracasser,” which means to smash violently. But the French got it from the Italians — “fracassare.” You can use fracas to describe any kind of noisy, crazy fight — physical or verbal.

Comments

[leethet.livejournal.com]

I've always pronounced it frah KAHH, but I was always kind of joking.

[otherhawk.livejournal.com]

"Oy! You two! Where do you think you're going? You can't just go around starting fights in the Palace of Westminster then swan off into the sunset!"
"We did not start the fight, we merely finished it...Napoleon please keep your elbow away from my ribs."
"I'm sorry, constable, what my partner meant to say was that it wasn't really a fight. It was just a minor fracas that got out of hand."
"A fracas?! Mr Finney nearly got shot in the Members Bar!"
"....a most uncomfortable place to be shot I'm sure."

[pfrye.livejournal.com]

Illya Kuryakin was in the commissary eating his lunch of meatloaf and mashed potatoes when the fracas started. He didn't know what started it, only that his peace and quiet was suddenly shattered by the sound of chairs being knocked over and two women screaming at each other. He looked up from his meal as Sally from communications and Julie from translations screamed at each other and grappled, scratching and pulling hair.

Jumping up Illya and a couple of Section Three agents tried to pull the women off of each other. It was like trying to separate two fighting cats. All three men bore marks from their attempts at peacekeeping.

Illya finally had enough and gave up on being gentle. He grabbed Sally and threw her against the wall, Brad Johnson a Section Three agent followed Illya's lead and did the same with Julie. Wiping blood from a split lip Illya bellowed "Enough!" The two women shocked into silence by the yell and rough treatment looked at Illya with frightened expressions on their faces.

"Take these two down to interrogation. Let them cool off, I'll be down later to question them."

As the Section Three agents took the two women out, Illya wondered what could have caused this disturbance.