faux pas is actually
French for
false step, which is close to the
English meaning of a (usually
verbal)
blunder.
Avoid the faux pas at all costs: think before speaking. Here's a true example (from just a week ago) of what not to do:
Standing in a video shop with my girlfriend,I notice a movie on the bottom shelf whose cover photo displays a shapely pair of buttocks clad only in a G-string. I bend down to take a closer look, and my girlfriend says, "What are you doing?" Disregarding the fact that I'm crouching next to a nearby female customer, my face just below her thighs, I reply (honestly but ambiguously), "I'm checking out this chick's butt".
I can only hope that she understood my intended meaning. I didn't hang around to find out.