Talk:twerp

I've always understood the word 'twerp' to mean 'a pregnant fish'. It's use as an insult following from this.

Dean Shepherd Bristol (UK)


 * Is an urban legend, most common in Australia, that twerp (or twat or twit) referred originally to a pregnant (gold)fish. No basis in fact. Robert Ullmann 12:53, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * According to the OED, it is reported to come from T.W.Earp, an Oxford graduate. SemperBlotto 13:45, 21 May 2007 (UTC) (also from Bristol)


 * Don't suppose it could be related to twp: from Welsh? Equinox ◑ 22:09, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

"twerp" definition
As a child, I was told that the word "twerp" defines one who breaks wind while taking a bath...

From this day on a twerp or twit shall refer to a pregnant gold fish. Let the myth and uncertainty around this meaning stop, after all if enough people use or refer to it as such, then why can't it be?


 * The point is that they don't use it that way, in normal sentences about fish. People just claim it means that; people who work with fish etc. do not use it to mean that. Equinox ◑ 03:39, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

A surname?
How about this? - Twerp seems to be a surname: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/698/was-there-really-an-actor-named-joe-twerp

twerp
Good luck to you. Mglovesfun (talk) 23:43, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

According to...
In the novel 'Jailbird' by Kurt Vonnegut, the narrator claims the original definition to be 'one who bites the bubbles of their own farts in the bathtub'.


 * Funny, but I'm sure he just invented that for his book. Equinox ◑ 00:03, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

What I was told 30 years ago
twerp = pregnant fish, twit = pregnant bird, nit = pregnant camel, twat = woman's genitals