blunder
pronunciation
How to pronounce blunder in British English:
UK [ˈblʌndə(r)]
How to pronounce blunder in American English:
US [ˈblʌndər]
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- Noun:
- an embarrassing mistake
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- Verb:
- commit a faux pas or a fault or make a serious mistake
- make one's way clumsily or blindly
- utter impulsively
Word Origin
- blunder
- blunder: [14] When blunder first entered the language, it meant ‘stumble around blindly, bumping into things’, which gives a clue to its possible ultimate connection with blind. Its probable source was Old Norse blundra ‘shut one’s eyes’, forerunner of Swedish blunda and Norwegian blunda (Jon Blund is the Swedish equivalent of ‘the sandman’), and very likely a descendant of Indo-European *bhlendhos, from which blind comes. The first record of the modern sense ‘foolish mistake’ comes in Edward Phillips’s The new world of English words 1706.=> blind
- blunder (v.)
- mid-14c., "to stumble about blindly," from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse blundra "shut one's eyes," from PIE root *bhlendh- (see blind). Meaning "make a stupid mistake" is first recorded 1711. Related: Blundered; blundering.
- blunder (n.)
- mid-14c., apparently from blunder (v.), though of about the same age.
Example
- 1. The move is a blunder because it glorifies mr assange , and also because it confuses a cause with a symptom .
- 2. South african airforce bosses scrambled a helicopter to pick up the passenger after the blunder near langebaanweg airfield , 80 miles north of cape town .
- 3. Europe , turning inward to absorb the former warsaw pact nations , made the fateful blunder of embracing the euro rather than a more aggressive program of reform in labor markets , subsidies and the like .
- 4. " The truth is , we may never know the true origin of the attack unless the attacker made some colossal blunder , " said joe stewart , a director in the counter threat unit at secureworks , a computer security consulting organization .
- 5. The act of fail , to blunder , to make a snafu , or catastrophe