# Twitting Twerps about Twats **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 29, 2002, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitting-twerps-about-twats/100747 "2002-03-29T15:06:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitting-twerps-about-twats/100747/1 "2002-03-29T15:06:27Z")
I was sure somebody else would have gotten to this before me but I guess I’m the only one with direct access to the OED online thanks to my library card. As far as I know, what you get online is the whole shebang - none of this abridged one-volume edition stuff. Suffice it to say that the OED online supports the basic research done by Unca Cecil and Jill - the words _twit_, _twat_, and _twerp_ (or _twirp_ do not have the meaning “pregnant goldfish”. Herewith, hopefully within the limits of fair use, are the complete listings of meanings: **twit** [sup]1[/sup]: > [@](#): > > 1. An act of twitting; a (light) censure or reproach; a taunt. **twit** [sup]2[/sup]: > [@](#): > > A fault or entanglement in a thread, which hinders the process of spinning or weaving. **twit** [sup]3[/sup]: > [@](#): > > 1. An imitation of the cry of an owl. Cf. TU-WHIT. _Obs. rare_ **twat** : > [@](#): > > 1. (See quot. 1727.) > Erroneously used (after quot. 1660) by Browning Pippa Passes IV. ii. 96 under the impression that it denoted some part of a nun’s attire. The _buttocks_?! Never heard that one myself. Although I suppose since the Aussies call a twat a “fanny”, it’s a fair trade. **twerp** : > [@](#): > > A despicable or objectionable person; an insignificant person, a nobody; a nincompoop. _Twirp_ is, as noted in this week’s column, merely a variant spelling of _twerp_. And there we have it. I’d certainly like to see if any other dictionaries have “pregnant goldfish” as a listing for any of these words, but as far as I’m concerned the OED is the _ne plus ultra_ of references and all other dictionaries are edited by twerps who wouldn’t know a twit from a twat. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitting-twerps-about-twats/100747/2 "2002-03-29T15:31:32Z")
The link to Cecil’s column is: [Is a pregnant goldfish called a twit?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/020329.html) ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitting-twerps-about-twats/100747/3 "2002-03-29T15:38:41Z")
I will link to Cecil’s columns. I will link to Cecil’s columns. I will link to Cecil’s columns. I will link to Cecil’s columns. I will link to Cecil’s columns. Do I _really_ gotta write this five hundred times? ---
**Author:** ![aubries](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/53a042/32.png) [@aubries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aubries)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitting-twerps-about-twats/100747/4 "2002-03-29T16:16:28Z")
There is a Kurt Vonnegut book (Breakfast of Champions, I think), in which he explains that a “twerp” is a person who bites the bubbles of his own farts in a bathtub. While Vonnegut is often fairly tongue in cheek about this sort of thing, if I recall, it was in the context of defining a few other insults, some of which I already knew (or believed, at any rate) to be correct. Is it possible that this definition has source apart from that book? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitting-twerps-about-twats/100747/5 "2002-03-29T18:45:12Z")
When I was in grade school in the '60s, “Someone who farts in the bathtub and bites the bubbles” was the answer to the question “What’s a snarfer?” ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitting-twerps-about-twats/100747/6 "2002-03-29T19:33:43Z")
I was always led to believe that a ‘prat’ was a pregnant goldfish. Maybe that’s just in the East Midlands. Anyways, the word ‘twat’, one of my favourite words BTW, has three definitions that I know of: [list=1] [li]An idiot[/li][li]Female genitalia[/li][li]To hit or punch[/li][/list=1] ---
**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitting-twerps-about-twats/100747/7 "2002-03-29T20:53:59Z")
Errr… um 'kay. No one has really addressed the etymology yet. I grew up thinking that “twit” meant “idiot” but my mother used to smack me if I said it (if I said “twat,” I’d have a two-week coma). She was under the impression that “twit” was a _dirty word_. After reading the column and these posts, I still have to ask… WHY??? I presumed that “twit” was a cleaned up version of “twat,” but ,even then, I don’t understand why “twat” is a naughty word. and - > [@](#): > > Originally posted by **Kal** : > > Anyways, the word ‘twat’, one of my favourite words BTW, has three definitions that I know of: > > 1.An idiot > 2.Female genitalia > 3.To hit or punch I have already addressed #1, I’ve heard #2 [sub]but I still don’t know WHY it means that[/sub], and for #3 – Nope. It’s “tunk” and “whale,” respectively. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitting-twerps-about-twats/100747/8 "2002-03-29T21:27:05Z")
When I was in high school, (class of '67) the school held a Twirp Dance. It was an acronym for The Woman Is Requested (to) Pay. It was sort of a Sadie Hawkins concept where the girls would ask the guy, buy the tix, drive to the dance, and, it was rumored, make the first pass. The big surge in Feminism may have phased out the Twirp Dance, I dunno. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitting-twerps-about-twats/100747/9 "2002-03-29T22:09:34Z")
I always took the “stupid person” sense of “twit” to be a contraction of “nitwit”. The story about “twit” meaning a pregnant goldfish reminds me of the urban myth that passed through my Midwest US junior high: that “dood” (dude) meant a hair on an elephant’s butt. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitting-twerps-about-twats/100747/10 "2002-03-30T02:56:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Exgineer \* > **Errr… um 'kay. No one has really addressed the etymology yet.** Far be it from me to leave a job unfinished. According to the OED: The word _twit_ comes from an Old English word, _atwite_ meaning “to cast imputation upon, reproach”. _Twat_ is of obscure origin. (Yeah right, they just don’t wanna tell us the juicy stuff.) _Twerp_ is presumed to have come from the name T.W. Earp, who graduated from Oxford in 1911 and apparently was unpopular with one crowd for whatever reason. It’s attested to by no less a source than J.R.R. Tolkien and another author by the name of R. Campbell I’m not familiar with. ---
**Author:** ![Tsubaki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@Tsubaki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tsubaki)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitting-twerps-about-twats/100747/11 "2002-03-31T02:11:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by foolsguinea \* > \*\*I always took the “stupid person” sense of “twit” to be a contraction of “nitwit”. > > The story about “twit” meaning a pregnant goldfish reminds me of the urban myth that passed through my Midwest US junior high: that “dood” (dude) meant a hair on an elephant’s butt. \*\* That’s funny, because in MY high school (SW Australia) a “dude” was apparently a camel’s penis.