www.alphadictionary.com

• gaffe •

Pronunciation: gæf • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: A clumsy remark, embarrassing blunder, faux pas, solecism.

Notes: Don't forget the final E on this word, because, without it, (gaff) it means "a stick with a hook on the end". This word seems to be a lexical orphan, with no derivational relatives.

In Play: VP Joe Biden, known for his verbal gaffes, once said "If we do everything right, there's still a 30% chance we are going to get it wrong." However, in Washington a gaffe is usually when someone slips up and tells the truth. Gaffes may be visual, as the picture below demonstrates.

Word History: English in the early 20th century simply helped itself to the French word gaffe "clumsy remark", originally "a pole with a hook on the end". French took the word from Old Provençal gafar "to seize", which borrowed it from a Germanic source. We guess a Germanic source for that would explain the changes in the PIE word kap- "to grasp". This leaves only the semantic question. The semantic shift probably resulted from a confusion with an ancestor of the Old English word gaf "buffoonery, tomfoolery". (Our old friend and frequent contributor Jackie Strauss gave us the go-ahead on today's funny if mysterious Good Word.)

Why single out Biden? Trump trumps Biden’s gaffes by light years.

Can we keep politics out of the conversation, please?
I, for one, find them highly offensive.

Thanks for that wonderful picture!
There was a company in the town I used to live in that had several very successful Chinese restaurants called China House.
The bought a white van to use for deliveries and such.
On the doors, they had painted:
C.H.Inc.
I didn't know anyone in the company to talk to.
I never decided if I wanted them to know, or didn't want them to know.

In my area there is a non-gaffe company called Sloth Electricians. Non-gaffe because that is the actual name of the owners. Still... .

My sister introduced me to "Flood Plumbers". Again, a case of truth in advertising, as it recognized the name of the owner, not a disaster.

Collecting such names can be fun. There must be a word for it?