faux pas

See also: Fauxpas

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French faux pas (“faux pas, blunder; misstep, false step”), from faux (“false, wrong”) and pas (“step”).

Pronunciation

Singular

• IPA^(key): /fəʊ pɑː/

Plural

• IPA^(key): /fəʊ pɑːz/

Noun

faux pas (plural faux pas)

1. An embarrassing or tactless blunder (especially used in social situations and contexts); a misstep.
   • 1906, Chesterton, Charles Dickens, chapter 2

     A saint after repentance will forgive himself for a sin; a man about town will never forgive himself for a faux pas.

Synonyms

• (a mistake): blooper, blunder, boo-boo, defect, error, fault, fluff, gaffe, lapse, mistake, misstep, slip, stumble, thinko, Freudian slip
• See also Thesaurus:error

Translations

social blunder

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 失禮／失礼 (zh) (shīlǐ), 失礼 (zh) (shīlǐ), 失態／失态 (zh) (shītài), 失态 (zh) (shītài), 失足 (zh) (shīzú), 過失／过失 (zh) (guòshī), 过失 (zh) (guòshī), 失誤／失误 (zh) (shīwù), 失误 (zh) (shīwù)

• Czech: faux pas (cs) n, trapas (cs) m
• Finnish: kömmähdys (fi), etikettivirhe, moka (fi), harha-askel (fi)
• French: faux pas (fr) m, (colloquial) impair (fr) m
• German: Fauxpas (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: passo falso
• Japanese: 過失 (ja) (かしつ, kashitsu)
• Russian: беста́ктность (ru) f (bestáktnostʹ), некраси́вый посту́пок m (nekrasívyj postúpok), просту́пок (ru) m (prostúpok), опло́шность (ru) f (oplóšnostʹ) (blunder, mistake); ло́жный шаг m (lóžnyj šag)
• Slovak: trapas m, prešľap m
• Spanish: (informally) metida de pata (es) f, metedura de pata (es) f
• Vietnamese: thất lễ (vi)

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fo pa/, /fo pɑ/

Noun

faux pas m (plural faux pas)

1. stumble, misstep, false step
2. (figuratively) faux pas, blunder