snafu

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Situation Normal; All Fouled Up

noun

1. A ruinous state of disorder: botch, foul-up, mess, muddle, shambles. Informal hash. Slang screwup. See correct/incorrect, order/disorder.
2. A lack of order or regular arrangement: chaos, clutter, confusedness, confusion, derangement, disarrangement, disarray, disorder, disorderedness, disorderliness, disorganization, jumble, mess, mix-up, muddle, muss, scramble, topsy-turviness, tumble. See order/disorder.

verb

1. To put into total disorder: ball up, confuse, disorder, jumble, mess up, muddle, scramble, snarl². Idioms: play havoc with. See order/disorder.
2. To harm irreparably through inept handling; make a mess: ball up, blunder, boggle, botch, bungle, foul up, fumble, gum up, mess up, mishandle, mismanage, muddle, muff, spoil. Informal bollix up, muck up. Slang blow¹, goof up, louse up, screw up. Idioms: make a muck of. See correct/incorrect, help/harm/harmless.

Origin: 1944

We could easily have given snafu pride of place in 1941, because it is already attested then in the journal American Notes and Queries with the polite definition "Snafu, situation normal." But we have saved this military creation for 1944, the year of greatest mobilization on all sides in World War II, when there were opportunities for snafus as never before.

In addition to the numerous official Acronyms (1943) of wartime, the sometimes frustrating experience of military life in the Second World War stimulated the improvisation of unofficial acronyms as well. Most of them involved the pair of letters f.u., which was translated politely as standing for "fouled up" in dictionaries intended for family use. Among themselves, members of the armed forces most often used a stronger f-word. Use your own preference in considering the examples that follow.

These words generally were written in lowercase letters, perhaps because they were unofficial, or perhaps to avoid suggesting impropriety by camouflaging them as ordinary words. They included fubar, meaning "f---ed up beyond all recognition," and the similar fubb, for "f---ed up beyond belief," as well as tarfu, for "things are really f---ed up." There was janfu, meaning "joint Army and Navy...," and GFU, referring to an individual who Generally Failed to Understand the situation--or something like that. But like the humorous abbreviations surrounding the birth of OK in 1839, most of the World War I coinages were short-lived. The exception was snafu, explained as "situation normal: all f---ed up."

Maybe the success of snafu resulted from the distinctive way it was used. A snafu was not an attitude but an event: "a mistake, a foulup, a glaring error." There was a need for an emphatic designation like this in civilian life too, so snafus have been plentiful ever since.

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[snæܒfōō] informal

snæˈfōō informal n. a confused or chaotic state; a mess: an enormous amount of my time was devoted to untangling snafus.

adj. in utter confusion or chaos: the supply ship was torpedoed and the planned assault was snafu.

v.

throw (a situation) into chaos: you ignored his orders and snafued everything.

Etymology: 1940s: acronym from situation normal: all fouled (or fucked) up.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Situation Normal, All F***ed Up.

• Release Date: 1981
• Genre: Action
• Style: 2D Action
• Similar Games: Surround (Atari Video Computer System)

Game Description

Evocative of Atari's Surround, Snafu involves serpents slithering around the playfield, leaving a trail as they go. The objective is to use your serpent to block the other three serpents and force them to collide with a trail, obstacle, or wall. Another mode has players trying to maneuver their serpent into position to bite the other serpent somewhere between its head and its tail. Getting bit removes a link from a snake, but remaining bite free for an extended period of time causes a snake to grow. Although Snafu is extremely simplistic in terms of audio/visual effects, it's a fun game (primarily in two-player mode), requiring reflexive thinking and on-the-fly strategies. Disc control does have some lag time, but players can easily adjust.

Roots & Influences

Snafu is suspiciously similar to Atari's Surround (1977), one of the nine original games on the shelves when the Atari VCS made its debut. Surround was also available in the arcades.

The Trap Games in Snafu were purportedly inspired by a board game called Blockade.

SNAFU is a military acronym for Situation Normal -- All Fouled Up.

Production Credits

• Genres: Rock

Biography

Snafu was formed in 1973 by former Procol Harum and Freedom vocalist Bobby Harrison along with Mick Moody, formerly of Tramline, the Mike Cotton Sound and Juicy Lucy. With Colin Gibson from Ginger Baker's Air Force, Terry Popple from Mickey Jupp's Legend, and session musician Pete Solley, the band released two critically acclaimed albums for the WWA label in 1974, Snafu and Situation Normal. In 1975, Solley left the band to be replaced by another session musician, Brian Chatton, and Tim Hinkley was recruited to complete the lineup that would record the band's third album, All Funked Up. This album has been seen as the band's "great lost album" because of its limited vinyl-format release, originally on the Capitol label. Shortly after the release of this album in 1976, Snafu broke up. ~ Keith Pettipas, Rovi

adjective
/snæ'fu:/ /snæ'fu:/
adjective

1: In utter confusion or chaos. (1942 —) .
D. Divine Situation Snafu....Send for the Seabees (1950). noun

2: A confusion or mix-up; a hitch. (1943 —) .
B. Mason And Holy Moses, what a snafu! Why foul up poor, harmless, gormless Glad? (1980). verb

3: trans. To mess up, ruin. (1943 —) .
G. Markstein My arrangements seemed snafued. I guess the lines got crossed (1981).

4: intr. To go wrong. (1975 —) .
J. Grady Every now and then something snafus and there is one hell of a mess (1975).

[Acronym for 'situation normal: all fouled (or fucked) up'.]

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For a list of words related to snafu, see:

• Fusses and Troubles

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See words rhyming with "snafu."

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - kludder, forkludret situation
adj. - håbløst forkludret, ad hekkenfeldt til
v. tr. - forkludre

Nederlands (Dutch)
iets dat mis gaat, puinhoop, chaotisch, misgaan

Français (French)
n. - (US) connerie, pagaille
adj. - en pagaille
v. tr. - faire une connerie, semer la pagaille

Deutsch (German)
n. - (Slang) Chaos
adj. - chaotisch
v. - verwirren

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - σκέτο μπάχαλο
adj. - χαώδης
v. - κάνω μπάχαλο

Italiano (Italian)
Situation Normal All Fouled Up, casino, fiasco, malamente, causare fiaschi

Português (Portuguese)
n. - confusão (f), desordem (f)
adj. - confundido
v. - desorganizar, armar confusão

Русский (Russian)
неразбериха, запутанный, запутать, перепутать, провалить (дело)

Español (Spanish)
n. - lío, embrollo, confusión
adj. - embrollado, liado
v. tr. - confundir, enredar

Svenska (Swedish)
abbr. - situation normal: all fouled up, allt har gått åt skogen
n. - kaos, röra, virrvarr
adj. - kaotisk, i en hopplös röra, åt helvete
v. - röra till, trassla till

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
天翻地覆, 无法可施的状态, 天翻地覆的, 大混乱的, 使混乱, 闹成天翻地覆

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 天翻地覆, 無法可施的狀態
adj. - 天翻地覆的, 大混亂的
v. tr. - 使混亂, 鬧成天翻地覆

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 대혼란 상태, 뒤죽박죽 상태, 잘못
adj. - 뒤죽박죽의, 대혼란의
v. tr. - 혼란 시키다

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 混乱した, 台無しの
n. - 混乱, 誤り
v. - 混乱させる, へまをやる

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) في حاله تشويش تام (صفه) لخبطه, ارباك شديد, فوضى (فعل) يشوش بصورة كليه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מצב-ביש, בלגן‬
adj. - ‮ביש‬
v. tr. - ‮כשל‬

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