klutz

Etymology

It is borrowed from Yiddish קלאָץ (klots, “block, lump; wooden beam; clumsy person”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from Middle High German kloz (“lump, block, ball, tree stump”),^[3][4][5][7] from Old High German.^[7] In German Klotz has also meant an ill-mannered or clumsy person since about 1500.^[3][5] The word is related to clot,^[3][5][6][8] and Wiktionary also connects it with clod.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An awkward, socially inept person, a fool: 1925, in H. Leverage's Dictionary of the Underworld in Flynn's magazine.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The word was American English at first.^[5][4][9] The OED says it meant at first an awkward, socially inept person, and now usually just a clumsy one.^[3] The dictionaries that missed the 1925 record date it much later: Merriam-Webster to 1960, the Oxford Dictionary of English to the 1960s, and Barnhart and Etymonline to 1967, though Barnhart notes that klutzy was known by 1965.^{[6][10][5][4]} The verb, to act or move clumsily, with about or around, is recorded from 1970, in Lillian Feinsilver's Taste of Yiddish;^[3] the OED cannot say whether clutz, a word of vague meaning in 1931, is the same.^[3] Green records a transitive verb, to bungle, from 1977.^[9]

Timeline

• 1925 – a stupid or socially inept person.^[3][9]
• 1965 – klutzy, clumsy.^[5]
• 1970 – verb, to act or move clumsily, with about or around.^[3]
• 1977 – verb, to bungle or botch.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (informal, chiefly US) A clumsy, awkward person: I'm such a klutz that I dropped the cake on the way in.^[6][11][3]
2. (informal) A stupid or socially inept person; a fool.^[3][11][9]

Verb

1. (informal) To act or move clumsily, usually with about or around.^[3][8]

Word family

• klutziness
• klutzy

Related words

• clot
• clod

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins