This one’s on me! I thought this word confusion was twat vs twit vs twot. Ha! There is no twot. Good thing I went exploring — I’d hate to look like a twitty twat!
I’ve always thought a twat was a foolish, contemptible idiot while a twit was a foolish idiot. Turns out that a twit is so much more as a noun and verb. As a noun, it’s confused, excited, nervous, gossipy . . . and a thin spot in yarn or a bird’s cheeping. As a verb, it’s all about the taunting. Either can be negative or positive.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Twat | Twit |
|---|---|
 — |
A Foolish Virgin in Half-figure is a fifteenth century engraving by Martin Schongauer and is under the CC0 1.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons and courtesy of the George Khuner Collection, Bequest of Marianne Khuner, 1984, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. — This engraving is part of a series on women who were twits. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Noun
Plural: twats |
Noun 1, 2, 3; Verb, transitive 4
Plural for the noun: twits Third person present verb: twits |
| Noun: [Anatomy; Vulgar; Slang] The female genitals [Offensive & vulgar slang] A woman or girl [Vulgar; Slang] A stupid, foolish, or contemptible person |
Noun: [Mainly British English; Informal] A silly or foolish person 1
[British, Ireland; Dialectal; Archaic] A person who chatters or gossips inanely
[Informal] A state of agitation or nervous excitement 2 A derisive reproach
[Textiles] A weak or thin place in yarn caused by uneven spinning 3 [Informal] A confused, excited state 4 A short, high-pitched call of a small bird, or a similar sound made by something else
Verb, transitive: To taunt or ridicule with reference to anything embarrassing
To reproach or upbraid |
| Examples: | |
| Noun: Gods, woman! Wash your twat! Some fine-lookin’ twats there. Omigod, she is such a twat! That guy is such a twat! |
Noun: She has no patience with the upper-class twit her parents are trying to match her with. Omigod, she is such a twit! “Of course you didn’t do it, you little twit.” — Matilda I feel a bit of a twit, but actually it gets some admiring comments from other cyclists. We’re in a twit about your visit. “[I]s’t a cursed wab o’ yarn / That winna work, for knots and twits, / Spun by some thoughtless drabby sluts, / Whase minds on naething else is carried, / But thinking when they will be married; […]” (Thomson, p 27). “The minutes seem’d hours — with impatience she heard / The flap of a leaf, and the twit of a bird;” (Clare). Verb, transitive: They twitted him about the girl he went out with last night. The children twitted the new teacher. “The schoolmaster was twitted about the lady who threw him over.” – J.M. Barrie The media twitted the mayor about his grammar for weeks. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: twattier, twattish, twatty | Adjective: twittish Noun: twitling, twitter, twittishnish Verb: twitter |
| History of the Word: | |
| Mid-17th century, of unknown origin. |
|
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
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Resources for Twat versus Twit
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Apple Dictionary.com
Clare, John. “Crazy Nell.” Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery. Originally published by Taylor and Hessey, 1820. Uploaded by Alyson-Wieczorek. Internet Archive, 2007. <https://archive.org/details/poemsdescriptive00clariala/mode/1up>. Ebook. p 210.
Dictionary.com: twit
The Free Dictionary: twat, twit
Thomson, James. Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. Kilmarnock: John Wilson, 31 July 1786. Legare Street Press, 2022. <https://amzn.to/46WhtjX>. Print.
Pinterest Photo Credits
Two Generations by Jan van Ipenburg, Asten, Netherlands, is WoodenSpoon‘s own work and under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.
DISCLAIMER: The use of this image is not intended to denigrate the subjects of this sculpture; it’s simply using the images of two women chatting together.
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