mitten

Clumsy or uncoordinated in an endearing or cute way. Based on the difficulty people have picking things up or performing tricky manual tasks while wearing mittens. This is especially the case with woollen mittens, which not only impede the individual use of your fingers but also get easily covered in dirt or snow. This term also pertains to the type of people who wear mittens; slightly strange children, possibly quite sheltered or with learning difficulties. These children sometimes had their mittens pinned to their clothing or wore a string connecting the mittens under the outer clothing layers so as to prevent their mittens being lost. It is the image of this child with a haircut their mum gave them and matching mittens and beanie that the adjective ‘mitten’ refers to.