snafu
[sna-foo, snaf-oo]
- a badly confused or ridiculously muddled situation: A ballot snafu in the election led to a recount.
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- in disorder; out of control; chaotic: a snafu scheme that simply won't work.
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- to throw into disorder; muddle: Losing his passport snafued the whole vacation.
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Origin of snafu
1940–45; s(ituation) n(ormal): a(ll) f(ucked) u(p); sometimes euphemistically construed as f(ouled) u(p)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for snafu
Contemporary Examples
SNAFU—“situation normal: all f--ked up,” as soldiers used to say—was the default position for American policy.
So is this snafu an image problem, or is the real problem the reality behind the curtain—a curtain that needed to be pulled back?
And you know what snafu stands for: Situation Normal, All Fucked Up.
Historical Examples
"We're not giving her a chance to snafu the works," Gotch said grimly.
First on the MoonJeff Sutton
Everything was in apple-pie order, except for the snafu in Arzachel, Crag thought bitterly.
First on the MoonJeff Sutton
snafu
- confusion or chaos regarded as the normal state
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- (postpositive) confused or muddled up, as usual
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- (tr) US and Canadian to throw into chaos
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Word Origin
C20: from s (ituation) n (ormal): a (ll) f (ucked or ouled) u (p)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for snafu
n.
1941, U.S. military slang, acronym for situation normal, all fucked up, "an expression conveying the common soldier's laconic acceptance of the disorder of war and the ineptitude of his superiors" ["Oxford English Dictionary"]. As an adjective from 1942. In public explanations the word typically was euphemised to fouled.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper