twitch athlete

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

    "Fast" and "slow twitch athletes" evidently derive from the "fast" and "slow twitch muscles." For a discussion of such muscles, see
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/exercisephysiology/a/aa080901a.htm
 
    I assume that the little used "twitch athlete" is a shortening of "fast twitch athlete."  It really doesn't seem to make sense otherwise.  It's as if an athlete would announce he's in "physical condition," with the adjective "good"/"fine"/"excellent" missing.
 
 Gerald Cohen
 
________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of RonButters at AOL.COM
Sent: Sat 2/24/2007 11:45 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: twitch athlete

In the issue of 2-12-07, TIME refers to a prominent video-games professional
(who calls himself "Fala1ty Kiaeneto" [with a "1" where one normally would
write "i") as a "twich athlete." This term is not familiar to me, and a Google
check indicates that it is most often used in combination with "fast" (or,
occsionally, "slow"), but I didn't find it used by itself.

Anyone know about the age of this term, its etymology, and the evolution of
its meaning?


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