the.com/gaffe

means An embarrassing social or verbal slip-up that reveals what shouldn't have been said.

from Borrowed from French gaffe, which originally meant a boat hook or pole used by fishermen — the kind of clumsy, blunt tool that could easily knock something over or snag the wrong thing. By the early 1900s French slang had bent 'gaffe' toward 'blunder,' and English picked it up directly in that sense. The leap from 'fishing pole' to 'foot-in-mouth moment' isn't fully documented step by step, but the image of an awkward, jabbing tool making a mess is very likely at its root.