Word of the day, 10th March 2015
fracas /ˈfrækɑː/ (noun) – a noisy quarrel (argument) or brawl (fight).
This word was in a news article that I read today. As it’s a slightly unusual word, and one that I would not tend to use myself, I thought it would be a good one to share. Note that the ‘s’ is not pronounced. This is probably because it is another word that has come to us from French (and of course, originally Latin). One of the reasons I tend not to use this word is because it appears to have such a wide meaning. If one says “there was a fracas outside on the street“, it seems to me it could mean that people were shouting at each other, or people were actually hitting each other. I am unsure as to whether Mr Clarkson was shouting at his producer, or if he actually hit him (although the latter does seem unlikely).