Fracas

Word of the Day for Saturday, October 6, 2012

Fracas \FREY-kuhs\, noun:

A noisy, disorderly disturbance or fight; riotous brawl; uproar.

Two or three people who were not there during the fracas poked their heads in at the door to sympathise but that made Mrs. Turner madder.
-- Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Never was he present at any gathering without some sort of a fracas occurring threat. Either he would require to be expelled from the room by gendarmes, or his friends would have to kick him out into the street.
-- Nikolai Gogol, Dead Souls

Fracas is derived from the Italian word fracasso meaning "to smash." It entered English in the 1720s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com