Gauche means awkward and clumsy in social situations. Gauche and young, a gauche remark, socially gauche.
It is French for left, and the equation of left-handedness with clumsiness runs through several languages, as it does in sinister and in dexterity. The word describes not knowing the form rather than not caring about it.
1adjectivegaucheAwkward and clumsy in social situations.
“He felt gauche and out of place at the elegant dinner party.”
gauche is a quality.
The French word means left, as in the left hand, the awkward one. Gauche is being awkward in front of other people.
hooks ontoleft
French gauche means left, from gauchir, to veer or turn aside.
Proto-Germanic
*walkaną — to full, roll up
Frankish
*walkan — to full, trample
Old French
gaucher — to trample, walk clumsily
French
gauche — left, awkward
English, today
gauche
Built from
French gauche (“left, awkward”), from gauchir (“to veer, turn”), from Old French gaucher (“to trample, walk clumsily”), from Frankish walkan (“to full, trample”), from Proto-Germanic walkaną (“to full, roll up”). Akin to Old High German walchan (“to knead”), Old English wealcian (“to roll up, curl”) and English walk, Old Norse valka (“to drag about”). More at walk.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA