Snafu

Word of the Day for Saturday, May 11, 2013

Snafu \sna-FOO, SNAF-oo\, noun:

1. a badly confused or ridiculously muddled situation: A ballot snafu in the election led to a recount.

adjective:
1. Rare. in disorder; out of control; chaotic: a snafu scheme that simply won't work.

verb:
1. Rare. to throw into disorder; muddle: Losing his passport snafued the whole vacation.

There was no snafu in the five-year plan. There was a deliberate strategy of recycling very-low-grade nuclear waste in building materials.
-- Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections, 2001

He'd say it was a snafu, by no means the first, from what I hear. Anyway, no sense in making a fuss.
-- Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin, 2000

Snafu is a neologism that originated as an acronym for "s(ituation) n(ormal): a(ll) f(ouled) u(p)." During World War II, soldiers used the phrase to describe the general disorder of war.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com