débâcle French · revision 16011

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=back-formation|attested=1680, Richelet}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /de.bakl/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA: /de.bɑkl/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''débâcle''' ''f'' (plural débâcles)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is the noun of [[débâcler|t=to unbar; to clear]] (1416),^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(FEW|1, 201a) from “dé-” and [[bâcler|t=to bar (a door)]], which Bloch and Wartburg take from Old Occitan “baclar” and [[la-vul|*bacculō|alt=*bacculāre]], from “*bacculum”, another form of [[la|baculum|t=stick]]: “to bar with a stick”.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Richelet (1680) has ''debacle'' for clearing a port of the ships that crowd it.^(TLFi)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Furetière (1690) used it for the breaking up of the ice on a river, carried off by the current, the sense now usual in geography.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) Figuratively it meant a revolution (Boiste, 1803) and, before 1850 (Balzac), a sudden collapse that ruins a business or an institution, especially the rout of an army, as in Zola's ''La Débâcle'' on the defeat of 1870.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007) With the article, ''la débâcle'' is the French defeat of May–June 1940.^(Wiktionary) The opposite ''embâcle'' was formed in 1836.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) English ''debacle'' is recorded from 1802 in geology and, from 1848 for a disaster.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1416 – ''Débâcler''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1680 – Clearing a port, in Richelet.^(TLFi)

+ * 1690 – The breaking up of ice, in Furetière.^(TLFi)

+ * 1802 – English ''debacle'' in geology.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1803 – “Revolution”, in Boiste.^(TLFi)

+ * 1836 – ''Embâcle''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * Before 1850 – “Collapse”, in Balzac.^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The breaking up of ice on a river.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # A rout (of an army): ''la retraite s'acheva en débâcle''.^(Larousse)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # A [[m|en|debacle]], collapse, ruin: ''débâcle financière''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(history)'' ''La Débâcle'': the French defeat of 1940.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[débâcler]]

+ * [[embâcle]]

+ * [[bâcler]]

+ * [[en|debacle]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}