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.
Pronunciation
- (UK) enPR: snă'fo͞o, 'snăfo͞o, IPA(key): /snæˈfuː/, /ˈsnæfuː/
- (US) enPR: snă'fo͞o, 'snăfo͞o, IPA(key): /snæˈfu/, /ˈsnæfu/
- Rhymes: -uː, -ɑːfuː
Noun
SNAFU (plural SNAFUs)
- A confused, muddled, or messed-up condition or state; a ridiculously chaotic situation; confusion or chaos regarded as the normal state.
- 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…
Translations
confused, muddled, or messed-up condition or state; ridiculously chaotic situation
- Bulgarian: бъркотия (bg) f (bǎrkotija), хаос (bg) m (haos)
- Finnish: hässäkkä (fi)
- French: bordel (fr) m, merdier (fr) m
- German: tanzendes Chaos n, Chaos (de) n
- Hungarian: zűrzavar (hu), káosz (hu), rumli (hu), összevisszaság (hu)
- Polish: bałagan (pl) m, burdel (pl) m, rozpierducha f, sajgon (pl) m, bajer (pl) m
- Russian: пу́таница (ru) f (pútanica), неразбери́ха (ru) f (nerazberíxa), барда́к (ru) m (bardák), ералаш (ru) m (jeralaš)
- Spanish: confusión (es)
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major glitch or breakdown