twat

[James C Stalker]

Twat is ambigous in my dialect.  It is used for both the vagina and the
buttocks.  A formulaic observation from high school (late 50s) about a male
oogling the rear end of a female, especially if he was following her down
the hall was, "he is on the trail of the twitching twat." I have been known
to use it still.  In general though, "her twat" referred to front rather
than back.

JCS

Laurence Horn writes:

> At 4:19 PM +0000 3/15/05, neil wrote:
>> on 15/3/05 3:49 pm, Jonathan Lighter at wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM wrote:
>>
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>  -----------------------
>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>>>  Subject:      twat
>>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---
>> --> -
>>>
>>> Besides the usu. meaning, OED lists "twat" as "U.S. dial. The buttocks."
>>>  There is an unequivocal (wordlist) cite from 1950.  However, I
>>> find the second
>>>  ex. to be ambiguous at best.
>>>
>>> Is anybody familiar with "twat" as a U.S. synonym for backside?  Or is
>>> this
>>>  likely to be an error?
>>>
>>>  JL
>>>
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>>
>> A gay gender twist is recorded in Bruce Rodgers (The Queens' Vernacular)
>> where the male anus or rectum is equated with the vagina - twat.
>>
>> --Neil Crawford
>
> And when you put that together with the front vs. back regional
> variation on "cock", you can see where one might run into
> difficulties...
>
> L
>
> L
>



James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University