twat (was: Re: spaz and Tiger Woods)

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Mon Apr 24 00:35:01 UTC 2006


FWIW, Dutch has carried this shift to its logical conclusion: "kont" is now
a synonym of "aars" and the historical meaning of "kont" has been taken over
by "kut."

-Wilson

:
On 4/23/06, Mark A. Mandel <mamandel at ldc.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      twat (was: Re: spaz and Tiger Woods)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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