Gauche

 WORD OF THE DAY

gauche / adjective / GOHSH

Definition
1a : lacking social experience or grace
1b: not tactful
1c: crude
1d: crudely made or done
2: not planar

Examples
“When he completed his performance, [Olympic figure skater Nathan Chen] punched the air in celebration. Normally I find this display of open emotion a little bit gauche, but for Nathan, I’ll allow it. He was exquisite.”
— Chris Schleicher, Slate, 8 Feb. 2022

We were suburban housewives and mothers. As poets we took a respectful backseat to the male poets. We did not talk about our husbands and children in public; that would have been gauche indeed.
— Maxine Kumin, In Deep, 1987

Did You Know?
Although it doesn’t mean anything sinister, gauche is one of several words (including sinister) with ties to old suspicions and negative associations relating to the left side and use of the left hand.
In French, gauche literally means “left,” and it has the extended meanings “awkward” and “clumsy.”
These meanings may have come about because left-handed people could appear awkward trying to manage in a mostly right-handed world, or perhaps because right-handed people appear awkward when trying to use their left hand.
 Regardless, awkwardness is a likely culprit. Fittingly, awkward itself comes from the Middle English awke, meaning “turned the wrong way” or “left-handed.”
On the other hand, adroit and dexterity have their roots in words meaning “right” or “on the right side.”