faux pas

plural faux pas's

1. An embarrassing or tactless blunder.

   We could laugh at our scholastic blunders and our social faux pas's.

   1869, The Cornellian, volume 124, Secret Societies of Cornell University, page 353

   3 more examples

   Now my dear Lady Teazle if you but once make a trifling Faux Pas you can't conceive how cautious you would grow, and how ready to humour and agree with your Husband.

   1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, IV.iii

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

   1906, Chesterton, Charles Dickens, chapter 2

   He was also prone to faux pas, none as memorable as his 2014 secret escapade from the Élysée. He was captured in full-faced helmet on the back of a motor scooter on his way to meet his mistress, the actress Julie Gayet, who is now his wife.

   2023 June 10, Roula Khalaf, “Lunch with the FT: François Hollande”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3

   Synonyms: misstep, mistake, blunder, aberration, bloomer, blooper, blunder, boner

participle present faux pas'ing · participle past faux pas'ed · past faux pas'ed

1. nonstandardrareTo commit a faux pas; to blunder.