'Debacle' is French for 'unbarring' — originally ice breaking up on a river, then any sudden collapse.
A sudden and complete disaster or failure; a fiasco.
From French 'débâcle' (breaking up of river ice, violent rush of water, catastrophic collapse), from 'débâcler' (to unbar, to release), from 'dé-' (un-, from Latin 'dis-') + 'bâcler' (to bar, to block), from Vulgar Latin *bacculare (to bar with a stick), from Latin 'baculum' (stick, staff), from PIE *bak- (staff, stick). The original sense was meteorological: the dramatic breaking up of river ice in spring, releasing a chaotic surge of water and debris. By extension it came to mean any sudden violent breakdown — a military rout, a complete