Howler
A particularly egregious or embarrassing blunder, often one that seems obvious in hindsight.
Howler carries a stronger connotation of embarrassment than a plain "blunder," often reserved for mistakes made by strong players that seem astonishing given their skill level.
Etymology
Howler is recorded from 1800 meaning “animal that howls,” originally the South American howler monkey; the sense that chess uses — “glaring blunder, ridiculous mistake” — is first recorded in 1890. The image is of a mistake so bad it makes onlookers cry out, or one that “howls” for attention. Chess appears simply to have adopted the ordinary British-English schoolroom and journalistic sense of an embarrassing error, rather than coining anything of its own; no source consulted confirms a chess-specific first use.
First documented: 1890 — General English “glaring blunder” sense (per Etymonline); chess-specific first use not confirmed
Translations
Translations for this term haven't been added yet.