From Latin, a slipping, a fall.

1. A slip of the pen or an error in writing from Latin calamarius, "pertaining to a pen", from calamus, "reed, pen", from Greek kalamos.
2. A slip of the pen, an unintentional writing error; especially, in spelling taxonomic names.

Slip of the tongue; from Latin lapsus, a slip; an error; chiefly used in Latin phrases. English pronunciation: LAP suhs LING gwee.

This shows that a lapsus linguae can be embarrassing, to say the least. The situation could also be considered a lapsus memoriae or a "lapse of memory".

There is one more mental lapse, one that involves carelessness in writing: lapsus calami or a slip of the pen. The word calamus was a reed formerly used as a pen.

A lapsus linguae can result from laliophobia or lalophobia

In the world of human relations, a person can suffer from laliophobia (lalophobia); that is, a terror of talking or of stuttering when trying to talk.

An individual's speech difficulty may be aggravated by situations that arise from anxieties or fears of self-consciousness.

Of course, there is also the other condition called, lalomania, a compulsion or abnormal desire to talk excessively. Neither situation is considered desirable in human relations.

See this special presentation about public personalities who have committed various forms of lapsus linguae.

A click on the image will take you to the series of illustrated quizzes which will appear in random order or you may click on this image quiz link.

An embarrassing example of lapsus linguae.

A defect of the memory, sometimes considered to be a symptom of a mental illness: A lapsus memoriae is an involuntary mistake that is made while writing or speaking.

In literature, a number of different types of lapsus memoriae are named depending on the mode of correspondence:

1. lapsus linguae: a slip of the tongue.
2. lapsus calami: a slip of the pen.

With the variation of lapsus clavis: slip of the typewriter.

3. lapsus manus: slip of the hand, similar to lapsus calami.