actiune dezorganizata, confuza, ineficienta
Explanation:
One that got away.
Dear Evan: I used the expression "Chinese fire drill" the other day to indicate a disorganized, confused, and ineffective process. The person to whom I was speaking asked me the origin of the phrase. I diligently searched in my copy of The Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins without any luck. What say you? -- Ruth Martin, Princeton, New Jersey.
Well, I say that your first impulse was certainly sound. [Begin blatant advertisement] With more than 600 pages of the fascinating stories behind thousands of words, my parents' book (published by HarperCollins and available at fine bookstores everywhere) is certainly the logical place to look. [End blatant advertisement] Still, the English language is too big for any one book, so it's not surprising that they didn't get around to exploring "Chinese fire drill."
Riding to our rescue comes, as he so often does, Hugh Rawson, author of some of the most fascinating word origins books in print. In his marvelous Wicked Words, Mr. Rawson notes that the use of the modifier "Chinese" in the derogatory sense of "confused, disorganized or inferior" dates back to the time of World War I and was largely a British invention. Other "Chinese" slurs of the day included "Chinese ace" (an inept aviator), "Chinese national anthem" (an explosion) and "Chinese puzzle" (one with no solution).
"Chinese fire drill" seems to be one of the few (fortunately) of these phrases that have survived in popular usage. Aside from being a synonym for "extreme confusion," incidentally, "Chinese fire drill" is also the popular name for a prank long-beloved of college students, wherein 4 or 5 of the little matriculators stop their car at a red light, jump out, run around the car and then hop back in, the point (such as it is) being to complete the procedure before the light changes to green.
The earliest written citation for "Chinese fire drill" reported by the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang dates only to 1952, although William Safire is quoted as maintaining that it was commonly heard in Brooklyn just after World War I. This is not necessarily, as it would seem, a contradiction. As a former resident of Brooklyn, I can testify that Brooklynites are often decades ahead of the rest of the U.S. in the development and testing of insults. In any case, "Chinese fire drill," though today almost always used without malice, is indeed an insult to those of Chinese ancestry, and deserves to be permanently retired.
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Note added at 2002-10-18 15:18:26 (GMT)
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Apropo, cum ati traduce Chinese fire drill in cazul in care s-ar referi strict la situatia descrisa de Roxana in note?
( the collegiate prank in which everyone tumbles out of a car at a stoplight, runs around to the other side, and piles in again)
Reference: http://www.word-detective.com/back-x.html
| Katza
Local time: 19:25
Native speaker of:  Romanian
PRO pts in pair: 22
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peer agreement (net): +3