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 |
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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. |
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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!
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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.