twitterrati plus request

[Victor Steinbok]

An interesting variation--wonder if double-r is reasonable.

http://goo.gl/Bw1FL
> That felt nothing like Thursday, when Harvard pulled off an upset over
> a physically imposing New Mexico team -- a stunner that riled up the
> Harvard twitterrati and sparked dreams of nets somehow being cut down
> with a slide rule.

Goes in the file with "glitterati" and other assorted variations.

Completely OT, I wanted to know if anyone has posted/noted anything of
significance on 1) medibles and 2) antedating of "whisleblower" (OED
1970; MWOLD 1970; note that MW and AHD both have a very narrow
definition, as do most other online dictionaries, with AHD listing only
the one-word form and MW only the dashed form)

Wikipedia makes some claims that may not stand up under scrutiny:

> The term whistle-blower comes from the whistle a referee uses to
> indicate an illegal or foul play.[4][5] US civic activist Ralph Nader
> coined the phrase in the early 1970s to avoid the negative
> connotations found in other words such as "informers" and "snitches".[6]

Wodehouse is repeatedly cited as the earliest incarnation for the
corresponding verb, so crediting Nader is questionable at best.
Etymonline is the source for associating the term with sports
(particularly "referee"), but I have reason to believe there is more to
it. I'll comment on it later unless someone's already covered this
extensively.

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