Goofed

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɡuːft/

Definitions

1. Committed an error or blunder in an action or decision
2. Did something incorrectly or poorly due to carelessness or misunderstanding
3. Executed a task wrongly, resulting in a fault or mishap

Etymology: "Goofed" is the past tense of "goof", and the verb's origins are murky. One candidate runs through a dialect word "goff", meaning a foolish clown, which may have come from an earlier "goffe". Another traces it to Middle English "goffen", meaning to speak in a frivolous manner, possibly linked to Old English words for buffoonery, mockery and lewdness. A third possibility points to Middle French "goffe", meaning awkward or stupid, with cousins in Spanish "gofo" and Italian "goffo". Notice that the older senses are closer to playing the fool than to making an error. The sense of a blunder came later, so the verb moved from clowning around to simply getting something wrong. Where exactly that shift happened, and which of these roots is correct, remains uncertain.

Synonyms: messed up, blundered, bungled, erred, botched