What’s a funny word for someone who is frequently breaking things?

Question

What do you call a person who is not very careful by nature, one who is constantly breaking things, missing appointments, stumbling into walls, and things like that?

Hopefully not too harsh a name, as if we find it funny.

Answer 1

There's many.

The person is Clumsy or a Klutz or bumbling.

See here for more synonyms.

Answer 2

Consider using something simple like accident-prone, absent-minded, or careless. Maybe they’re just forgetful, but there’s also inattentive, preoccupied, or scatterbrained. For meetings and such, they could be said to be unreliable or undependable.

Those aren’t as strong as an elephant/bull in a china shop or a walking disaster, or even an accident waiting to happen.

If it approaches the criminality of wanton disregard, it might even be negligent.

From Yiddish we get a whole host of “oopsy” words, like klutz and klutzy, or a schlep, a shlemiel, or a shlemazel. Those all have different connotations.

Some of those don’t sound too mean, but others do. For someone who always has their head in the clouds, you might also go for airhead or space cadet, or perhaps bumbler.

Answer 3

I have heard such a person referred to as a (walking) disaster area, but I can't find any source that supports this usage.

Answer 4

"Butterfingers" is a descriptive but forgiving word, and it usually makes people smile in nostalgia, as one doesn't hear it much anymore.

Answer 5

Appearing to be "not very careful", to be clumsy, as well as forgetful or disorganised can be symptoms of dyspraxia (adj.: dyspraxic). Dyspraxia is a condition, as opposed to simply being occasionally clumsy.

Developmental dyspraxia is an impairment or immaturity of the organisation of movement. It is an immaturity in the way that the brain processes information, which results in messages not being properly or fully transmitted. The term dyspraxia comes from the word praxis, which means 'doing, acting'. Dyspraxia affects the planning of what to do and how to do it. It is associated with problems of perception, language and thought.

Dyspraxia is thought to affect up to ten per cent of the population and up to two per cent severely. Males are four times more likely to be affected than females. Dyspraxia sometimes runs in families. There may be an overlap with related conditions.

Other names for dyspraxia include Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD), Perceptuo-Motor Dysfunction, and Motor Learning Difficulties. It used to be known as Minimal Brain Damage and Clumsy Child Syndrome.

(UK Dyspraxia Foundation)

Answer 6

I would call him a goof. OALEG defines it as "verb, noun, (informal especially AmE) (a person) to make a stupid mistake".

When I was working in the Tokyo office of a New York-based ad agency, my boss, who was American, used to call one of my colleagues a “goof,” and tutted when he was out of sight. The “goof” was serious and good-hearted, but prone to forget schedules and made mistakes that outraged his clients many times. He made many mistakes, but wasn't stupid.

The ‘goof’ eventually became the general manager of the Tokyo branch of a multi-national ad agency after I retired from the office.