fat finger
1
7.9
- noun
- Jargon
:
error de dedo gordo
- While entering his password, he made a fat finger mistake and typed the wrong code.
Examples
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She often submits her reports late due to fat finger errors when filling in the spreadsheet.
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So any error in any formula or any, anything that you fat fingered wrong shows up as cash.
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And it was because of my fat fingers on this iPad.
Blog text (10) -
And then again, you never know with me once I begin to bang on the keyboard with my fat fingers!
Blog text (5) -
He laughed when he realized he sent a text to the wrong person because of a fat finger moment.
Synonyms
1
3.5
Pressing the wrong keys when you type
A small mistake made when you press the wrong key
How Serious
Surface Forms
Morphology
fat + finger
The phrase combines the literal words 'fat' and 'finger' in a metaphorical way: a finger that is too large suggests accidentally hitting the wrong key, so a learner who knows the constituents can plausibly infer it refers to an input error. However, the shift from a physical description to the conventionalized technical sense ('a clumsy keystroke/mistake') is somewhat domain-specific and not fully predictable without contextual exposure, so it is not fully transparent.
Etymology
The expression fat finger may come from a simple picture: a person with a fat finger hitting more than one key or button by mistake. That's why today it means 'a clumsy mistake' when someone presses the wrong key or button.