gaffe
- a social blunder; faux pas.
Origin of gaffe
Related Words for gaffe
indiscretion, impropriety, blooper, blunder, solecism, indecorum, slip, boner, howler, boo-booExamples from the Web for gaffe
Contemporary Examples of gaffe
Christopher Dickey joins CNN International to discuss Biden's Erdogan gaffe and how it will affect Turkey's role in fighting ISIS.
The moment seems to be a familiar breed of Internet gaffe when a eager but inept social media staffer makes a blunder.
“I may not have been the clearest in my statements, obviously,” she said of her “busy” gaffe.
It's not an insult to farmers (though could be construed as one to Grassley); it's just a gaffe.
Clearly, Menzel isn't wasting time complaining about Travolta's gaffe.
Historical Examples of gaffe
She has been so charming to me that if I make a gaffe she must forgive me.
Sylvia & MichaelCompton Mackenzie
Think what his position would have been if any member of his Embassy had made a "gaffe."
Letters of a Diplomat's WifeMary King Waddington
gaffe
- a social blunder, esp a tactless remark
Word Origin for gaffe
Word Origin and History for gaffe
"blunder," 1909, perhaps from French gaffe "clumsy remark," originally "boat hook," from Middle French gaffe (15c.), from Old Provençal gaf, probably from a Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *gafa. Sense connection is obscure; the gaff was used to land big fish. Or it may derive from British slang gaff "to cheat, trick" (1893); or gaff "criticism" (1896), from Scottish dialect sense of "loud, rude talk" (see gaff (n.2)).