btdub(s)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

I was talking to a college student journalist about the effects of
"text-speak" on spoken language, and she mentioned the usual suspects, "LOL"
(pronounced "loll") and "OMG" (pronounced "oh-em-gee"). But she also
mentioned the expression "btdub" (pronounced "bee-tee-dub"), derived from
"BTW" ('by the way'). UrbanDictionary has entries for the more common
"btdubs" (variously spelled) back to 2004:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=btdubs
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=btdubz
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=btdubbs
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bt+dubs
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bee-tee-dubs

And here's a Usenet example from 2002:

---
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.music.ween/msg/666fd224428be865
alt.music.ween, May 13, 2002
Btdubs, Pittsburgh kicks Phile's ass as far as cities go, sorry Ween, but
it's true.  Go Steelers!
---

I don't think this one's been discussed here before, but I'd wager it's
shown up in elicitations of student slang from Larry, Connie, et al.


--Ben Zimmer

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