Gaff Definition

Origin of Gaff

• Perhaps from Old English gafsprǣc (“buffoonery, scurrility; blasphemous or ribald speech”), from Old English gaf (“base, vile, lewd”) + Old English sprǣc (“language, speech, talk”)

  From Wiktionary

• Middle English, from Middle French gaffe, from Old Provençal gaf (“hook”), derivative of gafar (“to sieze”), from Gothic - (gaff-) derived from (giban, “to give”).

  From Wiktionary

• Middle English gaffe from Old French from Old Provençal gaf from gafar to seize of Germanic origin kap- in Indo-European roots

  From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

• Origin unknown

  From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition