debacledebacle

The story

From French débâcle, from débâcler (‘to unbar; unleash’) from prefix dé- (‘un-’) + bâcler (‘to dash, bind, bar, block’) [perhaps from unattested Middle French and Old French *bâcler, *bacler (‘to hold in place, prop a door or window open’)], from Vulgar Latin *bacculare, from Latin baculum (‘rod, staff used for support’), from Proto-Indo-European *bak-. Also attested in Old French desbacler (‘to clear a harbour by getting ships unloaded to make room for incoming ships with lading’) and in Occitan baclar (‘to close’). The hypothesised derivation from Middle Dutch *bakkelen (‘to freeze artificially, lock in place’), a frequentative of bakken (‘to stick, stick hard, glue together’) no longer seems likely due to the lack of attestation of *bakkelen in Middle Dutch and by it having the limited meaning of "freeze superficially" in Dutch.