blunder [ME] The original meaning of blunder, ‘to move blindly, flounder’, gives a clue to its origin. It is likely to be related to *blind. Clumsiness was a central part of the word’s original meaning, and towards the end of the 15th century was added clumsiness in speech, with the meaning ‘to say thoughtlessly, to blurt out’. The modern sense developed in the early 18th century. In his poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ (1854), Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote of one of history’s greatest blunders: ‘Forward, the Light Brigade! / Was there a man dismayed? / Not though the soldier knew / Some one had blundered.’ A blunderbuss [M17th] is unrelated, being an alteration of Dutch donderbus, literally ‘thunder gun’.