fracas

What it means

1. A noisy disorderly quarrel, fight, brawl, disturbance or scrap.

   To the ranks of wonky risk management professionals who have toiled over the minutia of E.S.G. reports for decades now, the political fracas is perplexing.

   2023 February 28, David Gelles, “How E.S.G. Became Public Enemy No. 1 for Conservatives”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   4 more examples

   Fanny read to herself that “it was with infinite concern the newspaper had to announce to the world, a matrimonial fracas in the family of Mr. R. of Wimpole Street; the beautiful Mrs. R. whose name had not long been enrolled in the lists of hymen, and who had promised to become so brilliant a leader in the fashionable world, having quitted her husband’s roof in company with the well known and captivating Mr. C. the intimate friend and associate of Mr. R. and it was not known, even to the editor of the newspaper, whither they were gone.”

   1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 281–282

   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.

   1964, Philip K. Dick, The Simulacra, paperback edition, Vintage Books, published 2002, page 37

   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.

   1989, Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, paperback edition, Faber, published 1999, page 16

   But as a matter of corporate drama, the OpenAI fracas is above all a great example of why the incredibly boring-sounding term corporate governance is actually extremely important.

   2023 November 22, Derek Thompson, “The OpenAI Mess Is About One Big Thing”, in The Atlantic

   Synonyms: commotion, hubbub, kerfuffle, ado, argy-bargy, bangarang, bobbery, brouhaha

In a sentence

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.

1964, Philip K. Dick, The Simulacra, paperback edition, Vintage Books, published 2002, page 37

Where it comes from

1. Latininfra
2. Italianfracassare
3. Frenchfracas
4. Englishfracas

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