twat (was: Re: spaz and Tiger Woods)

Mark A. Mandel mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU
Sun Apr 23 15:42:22 UTC 2006


Wilson hath writ:
>>>>
The OED Online says that ["twat"] can be used to mean "buttocks" in the U.S.
That's news to me.
<<<<<

Maybe they saw it equated to "ass" (as in "get me some ..." or similar) and
assumed the default US meaning of "ass".

(After checking OEDO): They have two cites for this sense:
>>>
    3. U.S. dial. The buttocks.

 1950 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. XIII. 20 Twat,..the buttocks.
 1964 M. KELLY March to Gallows xii. 132, I could tell her what to do with
her twat if she's frightened to sit on it.
 <<<

I don't think the second cite is any different from the basic meaning*, but
I have to absolve them of original (mi)sin(terpretation), since they relied
on a regional authority. Anyone got the 1950 source?

* Which OEDO primly refuses to give, referring instead to one of their
cites, which "defines" it in Latin!:

   1. (See quot. 1727.)

[...] 1727 BAILEY vol. II, Twat, pudendum muliebre.

m a m

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