blunder

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English blundren, also blondren,^[2][3][4] probably borrowed from Old Swedish blundra (“to have one's eyes closed”),^[5][6] a frequentative of Old Norse blunda (“to shut the eyes”).^[5][6][7][3] Barnhart and Etymonline take it from a Scandinavian source akin to the Old Norse verb,^[8][9] and compare Norwegian Nynorsk blundra (“to act blindly”) and blunda;^[8][6] the base is related to blind,^{[8][6][7][10]} and Barnhart traces it to the zero grade of Proto-Indo-European *bʰlendʰ-.^[8] The Gersum Project notes that scholars disagree on whether the English verb is a borrowing from Old Norse or only a cognate.^[11] The OED calls the origin uncertain: a frequentative of blend in its Middle English form blonden (“to mix”) would explain the transitive senses, while the Norse verb suits the intransitive ones, and the senses from the two sources may have influenced each other.^[12][11] Weekley also compared Old English blandan (“to mix”).^[13] The noun is apparently from the verb, though it is recorded earlier.^[12][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, confusion, trouble or disturbance: about 1375, in the Scottish legend of Saint Theodera.^[12] Barnhart dates the noun to probably about 1390, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,^[8] and the verb to before 1378, "to act blindly", in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon.^[8] The OED's first record of the verb, "to move blindly, to flounder", is from Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale (about 1386).^[12]

Semantic evolution

Clumsiness was central to the word from the start: it meant moving blindly, stumbling about,^[14][10][12] and in the 15th century also mixing things up or confusing them, even making water muddy (about 1440).^[12] In Yorkshire dialect, beer or ale stirred up in the bowl was still called blundered.^[15] Clumsiness in speech was added in the late 15th century: to blurt something out (1483).^[14][12] The modern noun, a stupid mistake, first appears in Phillips's dictionary of 1706,^[12][8][10] and the verb meaning to make such a mistake in 1711, in letters of Swift.^[8][9] The older noun sense, confusion or clamour, died out in the 18th century.^[12][6] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "a gross or shameful mistake".^[16] Tennyson wrote of one of history's great blunders in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1854): "Some one had blundered".^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1375 – noun, confusion, trouble, disturbance (obsolete by 1774).^[12]
• c. 1386 – to move blindly, to flounder or stumble.^[12] Barnhart dates the verb to before 1378.^[8]
• c. 1440 – to mix up confusedly; to make water turbid (obsolete).^[12]
• 1483 – to utter thoughtlessly, to blurt out.^[12]
• 1706 – noun, a gross mistake.^[12][8]
• 1710 – blunder upon, to come upon by chance.^[12]
• 1711 – to make a stupid mistake.^[8][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stupid or careless mistake: Leaving the door unlocked was a costly blunder.^[17][2][12]
2. A foolish, tactless remark.^[17]

Verb

1. To make a stupid or careless mistake.^[17][2]
2. To move clumsily or blindly; to stumble or flounder: He blundered about the dark kitchen looking for a candle.^[17][2][12]
3. To come upon something by chance: They blundered upon the answer.^[12][2]
4. To say something thoughtlessly; to blurt it out.^[17][12]
5. To handle something badly; to botch it.^[17]

Word family

• blunderer
• blunderingly
• blunderhead
• outblunder
• unblundering

Related words

• blind
• blend

Usage notes

Blunderbuss is not from blunder: it is an alteration of donderbus, "thunder gun".^[14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins