gaffe

[gaf] /gæf/
noun
1.
a social blunder; faux pas.
Origin
1905-10; < French: blunder, probably special use of gaffe gaff1
Can be confused
gaff, gaffe, graph.
Examples from the web for gaffe
  • Nor is it the first gaffe to strike the current campaign.
  • The gaffe caused a six-day delay in election results, but wasn't insurmountable.
  • Not so much a gaffe as a simply horrible, uninspiring design.
  • At one point, he explained the residency gaffe by saying he didn't read his tax return before signing it.
  • Perry vows to stay in campaign after debate gaffe.
  • Perry's campaign diminished into a poof of smoke with each gaffe or stiff answer.
  • Offered a chance to walk his gaffe back, the poor fellow only digs himself deeper.
  • But that was a public relations gaffe, albeit a serious one, not a policy error.
British Dictionary definitions for gaffe

gaffe

/ɡæf/
noun
1.
a social blunder, esp a tactless remark
Word Origin
C19: from French
Word Origin and History for gaffe
n.

"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)).