gaffe

See also: gaffé and gáffe

English

Alternative forms

• gaff

Etymology

From French gaffe (“blunder”). Doublet of gaff.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ɡæf/
• Rhymes: -æf
• Homophone: gaff

Noun

gaffe (plural gaffes)

1. A foolish and embarrassing error, especially one made in public; a social blunder; a breach of etiquette.

   Synonyms: blooper, blunder, mistake, error, slip, slip-up; see also Thesaurus:error

   make a gaffe

Derived terms

• Kinsley gaffe

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 / 过失 (zh) (guòshī), 出醜 / 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, bévue (fr) 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) Hebrew: פַשְלָה (he) f (fáshla) Hungarian: ügyetlenség (hu), ballépés (hu) Italian: sproposito (it) m, figuraccia (it) f, errore (it) m, topica (it) f, gaffe (it) f Japanese: 失策 (ja) (しっさく, shissaku) Macedonian: гаф m (gaf), гре́шка f (gréška) 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 Turkish: gaf (tr)

See also

• Bushism
• faux pas
• Freudian slip
• malapropism

French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaf/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Hérault)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Saint-Étienne)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -af

Noun

gaffe f (plural gaffes)

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

Derived terms

• faire gaffe

Descendants

• → English: gaffe
• → Italian: gaffe
• → Portuguese: gafe
• → Romanian: gafă
• → Turkish: gaf

Noun

gaffe f (plural gaffes)

1. (nautical) boathook

Further reading

• “gaffe”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

German

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

gaffe

1. inflection of gaffen:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative
   3. first/third-person singular subjunctive I

Italian

Pronunciation 1

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡaf.fe/
• Rhymes: -affe
• Hyphenation: gàf‧fe

Noun

gaffe f

1. plural of gaffa

Pronunciation 2

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡaf/
• Rhymes: -af

Noun

gaffe f (invariable)

1. gaffe, blunder, boob