verb/ba.kle/
to bang out (a task), to botch
Related: débâcler
Perhaps from unattested Middle French and Old French *bâcler, *bacler (“to hold in place, prop a door or window open”). From Vulgar Latin *bacculare, from Latin baculum (“rod, staff used for support”), from Proto-Indo-European *bak-. Indirectly attested in Old French desbacler (“to clear a harbour by getting ships unloaded to make room for incoming ships with lading”). The hypothesis of a derivation from Middle Dutch bakkelen (“to freeze artificially, lock in place”), from bakken (“to stick, sti