Talk:twat

twat
Verb - confused with swat. --Connel MacKenzie 06:17, 2 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Dat bitch twatted your ass! ;) Never actually heard in use. Usenet results seem to show it as UK slang for being exhausted or drunk in addition to receiving a beating.  Twatting also gets used for emphasis like "that fucking driver".  I'll let the UK experts from ye'ole parlour fill in the rest.--Halliburton Shill 20:45, 2 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Ye-es...it's not unheard-of. ‘I twatted him one’ means ‘I hit him’.  It's kind of pub slang.  Widsith 22:40, 2 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Can't pass up on an opportunity to quote from Red Dwarf:
 * [the crew are discussing a dangerous mutant that has broken onto the ship]
 * Arnold Rimmer: What are we gonna do?
 * Dave Lister: Well, I say let's get out there and twat it!
 * ~Red Dwarf Series III episode 3 "Polymorph". RobbieG 13:47, 3 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Found a few more citations for it. &mdash; Beobach972 04:14, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * RFVpassed. &mdash; Beobach972 04:20, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Etymology
Is the etymology really unknown? The story I learned was that it comes from the Norse word, a synonym for slit (in the normal sense). Given that slit was already in use as a synonym for vulva, it makes sense that a Norse word for slit would take on the same meaning. Has this theory been discredited?

Two things
Not the verb sense which I'd say in the North of England is in clear widespread use. The pronunciation in Australia (to rhyme with  for people who can't read IPA) and the sense (erroneous) (Famously mistaken by Robert Browning to mean) a nun's headpiece. Both of these seem a bit dodgy. Mglovesfun (talk) 00:52, 24 December 2010 (UTC)
 * (1) Curiously, I just heard that pronunciation in the (US) film The Ice Harvest. I can't really vouch for or otherwise regarding the reputed Australian pronunciation, since it's not a commonly used word. However, I personally would agree with Browning's rhyme.
 * (2) The Browning thing was an edit of mine from what seems a long time ago. I found the quote while looking up the word, along with a fair amount of discussion about what Browning meant. Apparently he later admitted he'd read the word in a parody and taken the usage at face value. It seemed to me that "people" might well come across his usage and thus it might be worth documenting. I'm not sure how "famous" it really is though. It presumably caused a stir at the time.
 * —Pingku 13:56, 24 December 2010 (UTC)
 * The "twot" pronunciation is given as a British alternative here. Don't think I've ever heard it, though I'd personally encourage it because the usual pronunciation breaks the rule, otherwise fairly consistent, that ‹wa›, ‹qua› has the "short a"-sound only when followed by a velar. 90.186.72.174 01:58, 21 March 2020 (UTC)

TWaT is common British use
I came seeking the meaning of TWaT which is commonly seen in national British newspapers and elsewhere. It means 'Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday' and refers to workers who only come into the office on those days, working Monday and Friday at home. TWaT-ing has become a common practice after the lockdown coercion. Some employers and the Government are trying to discourage it in the hope productivity would increase. Ralph Corderoy (talk) 11:24, 20 December 2023 (UTC)