Jörg Knappen wrote on Fri, Dec 2, 2011 02:48 AM EST:
Patzer has definitely german relations, there is the verb 'verpatzen' in
german, meaning to crab, to mull, to fluff, to foozle, to snafu. I don't
know its further etymology, it is quite possible that it is either yiddish
oder rotwelsch.
