oaf

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 26, 2026 is: oaf \OHF\ noun Oaf is used to refer to someone as big, clumsy, and slow-witted. // The main character starts the movie as a tactless, bumbling oaf who is constantly causing offense to everyone around them, but eventually learns a valuable lesson about kindness and courtesy. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oaf) Examples: “Let me give you a rose. Well, just an imaginary rose. ‘What?’ ‘What’s the occasion?’ ‘What for?’ Because I want to participate in an act of kindness. ... It’s impossible, even for a blustering, clumsy oaf like me, to ignore the positive effects of a rose in hand.” — Anthony Campbell, The Advertiser-Gleam (Guntersville, Alabama), 24 Oct. 2025 Did you know? In long-ago England, it was believed that elves sometimes secretly exchanged their babies for human babies—a belief that served as an explanation when parents found themselves with a baby that failed to meet expectations or desires: these parents believed that their real baby had been stolen by elves and that a [changeling](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/changeling) had been left in its place. The label for such a child was auf, or alfe, (meaning “an elf’s or a goblin’s child”), which was later altered to form our present-day oaf. Auf is likely from the Middle English alven or elven, meaning “[elf](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/elf)” or “[fairy](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fairy).” Today, the word oaf is no longer associated with babies and is instead applied to anyone who appears especially unintelligent or graceless.