gaffe

See also: gaffé and gáffe

English

Alternative forms

• gaff

Etymology

From French gaffe (“blunder”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ɡæf/
• Rhymes: -æf

Noun

gaffe (plural gaffes)

1. A foolish and embarrassing error, especially one made in public.

Synonyms

• (error, especially made in public): blooper, blunder, boo-boo, bozo eruption, defect, error, fault, faux pas, fluff, lapse, mistake, slip, stumble, thinko
• See also Thesaurus:error

Translations

a foolish error, especially one made in public

• Breton: fazienn f, fallvarch m
• Bulgarian: гаф (bg) m (gaf), грешка (bg) f (greška)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 過失 (zh), 过失 (zh) (guòshī), 出醜 (zh), 出丑 (zh) (chūchǒu)

• Czech: blbost (cs) f, kravina (cs) f, bota (cs) f
• Danish: fejltagelse (da)
• Dutch: blunder (nl) m, uitschuiver (nl) m, flater (nl) m, gaffe (nl) f, misstap (nl) m
• Finnish: möhläys (fi), munaus (fi), moka (fi)
• French: gaffe (fr) f, faux pas (fr) m
• Galician: esquenza f, disquenza f, cabuco m, pifia f, falenza f
• German: Fauxpas (de) m, Ausrutscher (de) m, Patzer (de) m

• Greek: γκάφα (el) f (gkáfa)
• Italian: sproposito m, figuraccia (it) f, errore (it) m, topica (it) f, gaffe (it) f
• Japanese: 失策 (しっさく, shissaku)
• Norwegian: brøler m
• Polish: gafa (pl) f
• Portuguese: gafe (pt)
• Romanian: gafă (ro) f
• Russian: опло́шность (ru) f (oplóšnostʹ), про́мах (ru) m (prómax), оши́бка (ru) f (ošíbka), конфуз (ru) m (konfuz) (dated)
• Spanish: metida de pata (es) f (Latin America), metedura de pata (es) f (Spain), desliz (es) m, pifia (es) f, cagada (es) f (vulgar), gazapo (es) m
• Swedish: tabbe (sv) c, blunder (sv) c, fadäs (sv) c

See also

• malapropism
• Freudian slip
• Bushism

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French

Etymology

From Old Occitan gaf (“clasp”), from Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍆𐌰𐌷 (gafah, “clasp”), from 𐌲𐌰- (ga-) (intensifier) + 𐍆𐌰𐌷𐌰𐌽 (fahan, “to catch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaf/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun 1

gaffe f (plural gaffes)

1. gaffe, blunder, goof-up (North American), cock-up (British)

Derived terms

• faire gaffe

Noun 2

gaffe f (plural gaffes)

1. (nautical) boathook

Further reading

• “gaffe” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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German

Verb

gaffe

1. First-person singular present of gaffen.
2. Imperative singular of gaffen.
3. First-person singular subjunctive I of gaffen.
4. Third-person singular subjunctive I of gaffen.

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Italian

Noun

gaffe f

1. plural of gaffa

Noun

gaffe f (invariable)

1. gaffe, blunder, boob