Twats

[Laurence Horn]

>I suppose everybody knows about Browning's "owls and bats,/
>Cowls and twats" (in Pippa Passes)--where the poet
>apparently thought a twat was a (visible) part of a nun's
>regalia.  Those English!
>

and the subsequent immortal entry in Webster's NID2, s.v. "twat", 2:
"Some part of a nun's garb. Erron. Browning."  He also evidently had
the rhyme wrong too.

Larry



>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 23:34:23 -0400
>>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject: Re: spaz and Tiger Woods
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header ----
>-------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-
>L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: spaz and Tiger Woods
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>-------------------
>>
>>David, is your houseguest familiar with "Fawlty Towers"?
>>>From time to time,
>>the sign, "Fawlty Towers," would be "anagrammatized," so to
>speak. On one o=
>>f
>>the shows, the anagram read, "Flowery Twats." This was back
>in the '70's,
>>but I'm still trying to recover frrom the shock. ;--)
>>"Spastic" and "cripple" are taboo, but "twat" is
>okay?! "Ssup wit dat?!" as
>>Ali G (or whatever his name is) might ask.
>>
>>-Wilson
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org