clumsiness; awkwardness; ineptitude
Refers to a lack of skill or poor handling of a task, often implying a mistake or failure due to incompetence. Used for both personal and organizational shortcomings.
The meeting was thrown into confusion due to his clumsiness.
This mistake is due to my ineptitude.
不手際 refers to clumsy or poor handling of a task, while 失態 stresses the resulting disgrace rather than the clumsiness itself.
不手際 emphasizes clumsy or poor handling that causes trouble, while 手違い focuses on a mix-up or miscommunication in a procedure.
Compound of 不 (fu, 'not') + 手際 (tegiwa, 'skill, handling'). The word 手際 originally referred to the way one handles things with one's hands, and the prefix 不 negates it, yielding 'lack of skill'.