gauche

Definition

Awkward or lacking in social graces; bumbling; apt to make gaffes.

Etymology

Borrowed from French gauche (“left, awkward”), from gauchir (“to veer, turn”), from Old French gaucher (“to trample, walk clumsily”), from Frankish *walkan (“to full, trample”), from Proto-Germanic *walkaną (“to full, roll up”). Akin to Old High German walchan (“to knead”), Old English wealcian (“to roll up, curl”) and English walk, Old Norse valka (“to drag about”). More at walk.

Example Sentences

• "Seeking by vulgar pomp and gauche display In 'good society', to make her way"
• "She looked a trifle gauche, it struck me; more like a country girl with the hoyden taming in her than the well-bred creature she is."
• ""He's a trifle gauche" said Lady Hammergallow, jumping upon the Vicar's attention. "He neither bows nor smiles. He must cultivate oddities like that. Every successful executant is more or less gauche.""