Word Confusion: Twat versus Twit

Posted August 22, 2024 by kddidit in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

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.

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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 distorted drawing of Marjorie Taylor Green
Marjorie Taylor Greene — Caricature by Donkey Hotey is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr.

The woman is definitely a twat.

The background is vintage paper with engraved lines showing a woman with long hair curled around and in and under itself with a few tendrils dangling and wearing a very low-cut gown with long sleeves and holding a lantern.

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
Gerund: twitting

Third person present verb: twits
Past tense or past participle: twitted
Present participle: twitting

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

  • An insignificant or bothersome person

[British, Ireland; Dialectal; Archaic] A person who chatters or gossips inanely

  • Chatterer, a gossip, or gossiper
  • A person who divulges private information about others or is indiscreet
  • A tattletale

[Informal] A state of agitation or nervous excitement 2

A derisive reproach

  • Taunt
  • Gibe

[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

  • A cheep, a chirp, a tweet

Verb, transitive:
[Informal] To tease or taunt (someone), especially in a good-humored way 5

To taunt or ridicule with reference to anything embarrassing

  • To gibe at

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:
Her playmates could not twit her about her pigtail.

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.
  1. Early 16th century, in the sense a good-humored or teasing taunt, later a gossip or telltale, from twit.
  2. Probably from twitter, late Middle English (as a verb); imitative.
  3. First recorded in 1920–25; perhaps originally a noun derivative of twit, i.e., one who twits others, but altered in sense by association with expressive words with tw- (twaddle, twat, twerp, etc.) and by rhyme with nitwit.
  4. First recorded in 1890–95, probably shortened from twitter.
  5. Old English ætwītan meaning reproach with, from æt (at) + wītan (to blame).

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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!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Marketing Help & Resources, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Building Your Website.

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Resources for Twat versus Twit

Some of these links may be affiliate links, and I will earn a small percentage, if you should buy it. It does not affect the price you pay.

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.

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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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