I dislike “Twatter” because in the US “twat” is just another misogynist epithet like cunt and pussy. That’s a periphrastic way of saying please don’t use it.
@3 It always means the same thing, even when it is used more colloquially, not just the US where it literally means vagina. I personally like the terms ‘dork’, ‘dickhead’, ‘tool’, ‘weenie’, and of course ‘prick’, because then you don’t insult women. :D
twiliter @ 4 – Not according to people in the UK. It’s more ambiguous there – there are or at least have been people who have no idea it’s anything to do with female genitalia.
I think I’ve never heard the word at all from US people except in the term “Twatter” for “Twitter”. From UK people I’ve heard it only in the sense of “unpleasant or stupid person”.
Hm. It’s a fairly common slang term. When I was on the elephant crew years ago, we had to inspect their genitals regularly (because they had some kind of herpes-like blisters that mystified the vet so we needed to track their progress). I dubbed it Twat Watch and everybody laughed and that’s what we called it from then on. (We had no male elephants.)
I heard the term quite often as a youth, as slang for female genitalia. Most slang terms for genitalia were also used as insults. It was decades later that I understood people to use different slang terms for the same genitalia to refer to different personal attributes; initially to me they were all interchangeable, and there were some juvenile jokes that just listed them.
I grew up in the housing projects in NYC, which may say something about my social background.
For what it’s worth from my perspective in the UK, “twat” is associated with female genitalia but usually only tangentially, as though that’s the word’s origin story but not what’s on its Word Recognition Certificate. It means excessively stupid or unpleasant, with overtones of foolishness.
One might talk of “twatting about”, for example, which would mean acting annoyingly or idiotically, but in a way more likely to harm oneself than others.
Interesting that they get it right on their liveblog.
@1, probably a different editor of the liveblog and the Twatter account.
I dislike “Twatter” because in the US “twat” is just another misogynist epithet like cunt and pussy. That’s a periphrastic way of saying please don’t use it.
@3 It always means the same thing, even when it is used more colloquially, not just the US where it literally means vagina. I personally like the terms ‘dork’, ‘dickhead’, ‘tool’, ‘weenie’, and of course ‘prick’, because then you don’t insult women. :D
I had no idea (despite living in the US most of my life — I guess I’ve been sheltered). Thanks for telling me. I won’t use it any more.
…. and I was just saying on the other thread that all the reporting I’d seen on this story said “pregnant women”.
There can be joy in being wrong, but not this time.
twiliter @ 4 – Not according to people in the UK. It’s more ambiguous there – there are or at least have been people who have no idea it’s anything to do with female genitalia.
I think I’ve never heard the word at all from US people except in the term “Twatter” for “Twitter”. From UK people I’ve heard it only in the sense of “unpleasant or stupid person”.
Hm. It’s a fairly common slang term. When I was on the elephant crew years ago, we had to inspect their genitals regularly (because they had some kind of herpes-like blisters that mystified the vet so we needed to track their progress). I dubbed it Twat Watch and everybody laughed and that’s what we called it from then on. (We had no male elephants.)
I heard the term quite often as a youth, as slang for female genitalia. Most slang terms for genitalia were also used as insults. It was decades later that I understood people to use different slang terms for the same genitalia to refer to different personal attributes; initially to me they were all interchangeable, and there were some juvenile jokes that just listed them.
I grew up in the housing projects in NYC, which may say something about my social background.
Pussy is basically coward, submissive, subordinate to women. Twat is like fool/nuisance? Cunt of course is just bad evil demonic.
For what it’s worth from my perspective in the UK, “twat” is associated with female genitalia but usually only tangentially, as though that’s the word’s origin story but not what’s on its Word Recognition Certificate. It means excessively stupid or unpleasant, with overtones of foolishness.
One might talk of “twatting about”, for example, which would mean acting annoyingly or idiotically, but in a way more likely to harm oneself than others.
Re “Word Recognition Certificate”: I’m glad I had finished my coffee, might have been messy otherwise. Good one.