noun
clumsy girl; klutz
Otaku culture slang for a female character (or sometimes a child) who is endearingly clumsy or accident-prone. Often used affectionately in anime, manga, and light novels.
あのアニメのヒロインはドジっ子で、よく転んだり物を落としたりする。
The heroine of that anime is a clumsy girl who often trips and drops things.
妹はドジっ子だから、料理をさせるとキッチンが大変なことになる。
My little sister is such a klutz that the kitchen becomes a disaster when she cooks.
Standard katakana-kanji spelling; widely used in otaku and casual contexts.
Variant using 娘 (girl/daughter); emphasizes the female character, common in manga/anime.
Derived from ドジ (blunder) + 子 (child/girl), with the diminutive っ inserted for euphony. The exact origin is uncertain, but it emerged in otaku and internet slang to describe a cute, clumsy female character archetype.