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snafu

noun, verb — 3 senses

SNAFU

nounalso spelled SNAFU

UK /snæˈfuː/ · US /snæˈfu/

Etymology The term was born during the Second World War as an acronym of the initials of the words situation normal, all fucked up, which summed up the chaos and confusion of the war from an individual soldier’s point of view.

1

A confused, muddled, or messed-up condition or state; a ridiculously chaotic situation; confusion or chaos regarded as the normal state.

2

A major glitch or breakdown; a mistake or blunder.

  • 2007, Susan Glairon, Paperwork SNAFU, The Daily Times-Call, LongmontFYI Because of a paperwork snafu, he also hasn’t been able to get his Army discharge papers and is still listed as an active-duty soldier…
Related terms
FUBAR, Private Snafu, by Frank Capra in 1942. The stories were written by Theodor Geisel

snafu

verb
1

Government, Military, Politics, War Slang To screw up, fuck up, or foul up.

  • Generally I just catch the main event; but this night the prelims were snafued and the last bout was going on when I checked in.1950: Backfire (dir. Vincent Sherman), at about 30m

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for SNAFU and snafu.

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