Definition:
: a person who often drops things, falls down, etc. : a clumsy person
About the Word:
The story of klutz is a classic immigrant's tale. The word came to our language but a few generations ago, began its hardscrabble life as a non-standard lexical item, and through dint of hard work and having the good fortune of beginning and ending with two very funny letters, managed to make itself a widely accepted and useful member of our language. There does not appear to be any written evidence of klutz in English prior to 1959, when Carl Reiner explained the meaning of the word to the Los Angeles Times: "[a klutz is] a dancer who dances as good as he can, but instead of just applause he also gets laughter." It comes from the Yiddish word klots, which means 'wooden beam.'
Example:
"Incidentally, the kid used all our equipment, fiddling like the klutz he is with a brand-new Panavision camera, which now when I press the button makes a sound like when you turn slowly the wood handle on those tin party noisemakers Elsie calls groggers." — Woody Allen, Mere Anarchy, 2007
