English
Etymology
From French gaffe (“blunder”). Doublet of gaff.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɡæf/
- Rhymes: -æf
- Homophone: gaff
Noun
gaffe (plural gaffes)
- 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
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)
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See also
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/
- Rhymes: -af
Noun
gaffe f (plural gaffes)
- gaffe, blunder, goof-up (North American), cock-up (British)
Derived terms
Descendants
Noun
gaffe f (plural gaffes)
- (nautical) boathook
Further reading
German
Pronunciation
Verb
gaffe
- inflection of gaffen:
- first-person singular present
- singular imperative
- first/third-person singular subjunctive I
Italian
Pronunciation 1
- IPA(key): /ˈɡaf.fe/
- Rhymes: -affe
- Hyphenation: gàf‧fe
Noun
gaffe f
- plural of gaffa
Pronunciation 2
- IPA(key): /ˈɡaf/
- Rhymes: -af
Noun
gaffe f (invariable)
- gaffe, blunder, boob