View source for Twat

{{italictitle}}
{{short description|Derogatory epithet}}
{{other uses|Twat (disambiguation)}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2015}}
'''''Twat''''' is an English-language [[vulgarism]] which means the [[vulva]] or [[vagina]], and is used figuratively as a derogatory [[epithet]].<ref name="collinsdictionary">{{cite book |title=Twat definition and meaning |publisher=Collins |no-pp=y |pages=[https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/twat#twat__2 Collins English Dictionary]; [https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/twat#twat__3 Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition] |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/twat |access-date=24 July 2020 |language=en}}
</ref><ref name="mw">{{cite web |title=Definition of twat |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/twat |website=Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary |publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]] |access-date=24 July 2020 |language=en}}
</ref><ref name="lexico">{{cite web |title=Definition of Twat by Oxford Dictionary |url=https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/twat |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703211252/https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/twat |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 July 2019 |website=Lexico |access-date=24 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref> In [[British English]], and [[Hiberno-English|Irish English]] it is a common insult referring to an obnoxious or stupid person regardless of gender;<ref name="collinsdictionary"/><ref name="lexico"/> in [[American English]], it is rarer and usually used to insult a woman.<ref name="collinsdictionary"/><ref name="mw"/><ref name="AHD"/> In Britain and Ireland, the usual pronunciation rhymes with ''hat'', while Americans most often use the older pronunciation that rhymes with ''squat''. This is reflected in the former variant spelling of ''twot''.<ref name="greensdictofslang"/>

The literal sense is first attested in 1656, the epithet in the 1930s.<ref name="greensdictofslang"/> The word's [[etymology]] is uncertain. The ''[[American Heritage Dictionary]]'' suggests a [[Linguistic reconstruction|conjectural]] [[Old English]] word {{lang|ang|thwāt}}, meaning 'a cut', [[cognate]] with the [[Old Norse]] {{lang|non|þveit}} ({{lang|non|thveit}}).<ref name="AHD">{{cite web |title=twat |url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=twat |website=The American Heritage Dictionary entry: twat |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |access-date=24 July 2020}}</ref> [[Jonathon Green]] suggests a connection with ''twitchel'', a dialect term for a narrow passage.<ref name="greensdictofslang">{{cite web |last1=Green |first1=Jonathon |title=twat, n. |url=https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/nfgb7ei |website=Dictionary of Slang |access-date=24 July 2020}}</ref>  The 20th-century British slang verb ''twat'', meaning 'to hit, whack', is probably an unrelated [[homonym]] of [[onomatopoeia|onomatopoeic]] origin.<ref name="collinsdictionary"/><ref>{{cite OED3|id=80685765|term=twat, v.2}}</ref>

==Historical use==
[[File:Twatt road sign.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Road sign pointing to [[Twatt, Shetland]], which was ranked No. 4 of the most vulgar-sounding names in ''[[Rude Britain]]'', alongside [[Twatt, Orkney]], also in Scotland]]

[[Robert Browning]] famously misused the term in his 1841 poem "[[Pippa Passes]]":<ref name="McAlpine">{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Erica |title=The Poet's Mistake |date=2020 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-20347-8 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eqvQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA4 |pages=47–73 |access-date=13 July 2020 |language=en |chapter=Robert Browning's Bad Habit}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fowler |first1=Rowena |title=Robert Browning in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'': A New Approach |journal=Studies in Philology |date=Summer 1998 |volume=95 |issue=3 |page=342 |url=https://oed.hertford.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/fowler1998.pdf#page=10 |access-date=11 July 2020}}</ref>

{{poemquote|Then owls and bats
Cowls and twats
Monks and nuns in a cloister's moods
Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry}}

Many years later, [[Frederick J. Furnivall]] wrote to ask Browning what he meant by ''twat''; Browning replied that as a youth he had encountered the word in a volume of [[Broadside ballad|broadside]]s and inferred it to be an item of nun's clothing akin to a [[wimple]].<ref name="McAlpine"/><ref name="Mohr"/><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Peterson |editor1-first=William S. |title=Browning's Trumpeter: The Correspondence of Robert Browning and Frederick J. Furnivall, 1872–1889 |date=1979 |publisher=Decatur House Press |isbn=978-0-916276-05-8 |page=135 |language=en}}</ref> The relevant lines are from ''Vanity of Vanities'', a 1660 attack on [[Henry Vane the Younger]] which includes an [[Anti-Catholicism in the United Kingdom|anti-Catholic]] joke:<ref name="Mohr">{{cite book |last1=Mohr |first1=Melissa |title=Holy Shit: A Brief History of Swearing |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199908479 |page=189 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hPfuSMp_70oC&pg=PA189 |access-date=5 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Vanity of vanities or Sir Harry Vane's picture. To the tune of the Jews corant. |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A96040.0001.001/1:1?rgn=div1;view=fulltext |publisher=Charls Gustavus |access-date=11 July 2020 |location=London |year=1660 |via=[[EEBO]]}}</ref>

{{poemquote|They talk't of his having a [[Cardinal's hat|Cardinalls Hat]]
They'd send him as soon an Old Nuns Twat}}

Melissa Mohr suggests few [[Victorian era|Victorians]] knew the word, given that "none of the twenty-three or so Victorian editions" of Browning's poem omit it.<ref name="Mohr"/>  An 1868 query to ''[[Notes and Queries]]'' asked what the word in the poem meant;<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Makrocheir |title=Twat |journal=Notes and Queries |date=10 October 1868 |volume=s4 v2 |issue=41 |page=346 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y3Ct0ObEbUMC&pg=PA346 }}</ref> the only published reply was, "Twat is good [[West Country English|Somersetshire dialect]] for a toad=twoad=twat".<ref>{{cite journal |author1=U. O. N. |title=Twat |journal=Notes and Queries |date=31 October 1868 |volume=s4 v2 |issue=44 |page=427 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y3Ct0ObEbUMC&pg=PA427 }}</ref> A footnote in [[William James Rolfe]] and [[Heloise Hersey]]'s 1886 ''Select Poems of Robert Browning'' summarised his reply to Furnivall with the additional comment, "''Twat'' is in no dictionary";<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Rolfe |editor1-first=William |editor2-last=Hersey |editor2-first=Heloise |title=Select poems of Robert Browning |series=English classics / Edited by Wm. J. Rolfe |date=1886 |publisher=Harper and Brothers |location=New York |page=195 l.96 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433112057934&view=1up&seq=201 |access-date=13 July 2020}}</ref> H. W. Fay noted in 1888 in ''[[The Academy (periodical)|The Academy]]'' that the word was in fact in [[Thomas Wright (antiquarian)|Thomas Wright]]'s 1857 ''Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English'', and said Browning, Furnivall and Rolfe had all made a "distressing blunder".<ref name="Mohr"/><ref name="McAlpine"/><ref>{{cite journal |first=H. W. |last=Fay |title=A Distressing Blunder |journal=The Academy |date=16 June 1888 |volume=33 |page=415}}</ref> The 1894 reprint of ''Select Poems'' replaced the comment with "Browning would not have used the word if he had known its meaning".<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Rolfe |editor1-first=William |editor2-last=Hersey |editor2-first=Heloise |title=Select poems of Robert Browning |series=English classics |date=1894 |publisher=Harper and Brothers |location=New York |page=195 l.96 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044086845484&view=1up&seq=199 |access-date=13 July 2020}}</ref> In 1911 [[Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve]] alluded to "a notorious word which smirches the skirt of Pippa Passes".<ref>{{cite journal |title=Brief Mention |jstor=288870 |journal=The American Journal of Philology |date=1911 |volume=32 |issue=2 |page=241 |url=https://archive.org/details/jstor-288870/page/n13 |language=en |issn=0002-9475}}; cited in {{cite journal |last1=Pyles |first1=Thomas |title=Innocuous Linguistic Indecorum: A Semantic Byway |journal=Modern Language Notes |date=1949 |volume=64 |issue=1 |page=2 fn.4 |doi=10.2307/2909241 |jstor=2909241 |issn=0149-6611}}</ref>

Browning's error posed a dilemma for many pre-1960s lexicographers, who excluded words deemed obscene but aspired to include all words used by major writers like Browning. The 1890 ''[[Century Dictionary]]'' included the correct definition, labelled "vulgar", and noted Browning's "supposition" of its meaning.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Century Dictionary of the English Language and Encyclopedic Lexicon |volume=XXIII |date=1891 |publisher=Century |location=New York |page=6548 |url=https://archive.org/details/centurydictipt2300whituoft/page/6548 |access-date=13 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref> In 1934 ''[[Webster's Second New International Dictionary]]''{{'s}} entry for ''twat'' read: "Some part of a nun's garb. ''Erron. Browning''".<ref>{{cite book |title=New international dictionary of the English language |date=1953 |volume=V |orig-year=1934 |publisher=G. & C. Merriam |location=Springfield, Mass |page=2744 |edition=2nd unabridged |url=https://archive.org/details/newinternational0005webs/page/2744 |access-date=11 July 2020 |language=en |via=Internet Archive |url-access=registration}}</ref> The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' (OED) included many taboo words, albeit often with circumscribed definition and quotations,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gilliver |first1=Peter |title=The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-100968-6 |page=297 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5tfeDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA297 |access-date=11 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref> and ''twat'' was duly included in the relevant OED [[Fascicle (book)|fascicle]], published in 1916. The entry labelled it "low" and obsolete and noted Browning's "erroneous" use.<ref name="oed1">{{cite dictionary |dictionary=Oxford English Dictionary |edition=1st |volume=X |page=519 |year=1926 |orig-year=1916 |title=Twat |url=https://archive.org/stream/ANewEnglishDictionaryOnHistoricalPrinciples.10VolumesWithSupplement/10.p1.NEDHP.TiTzU.Oxford.Murray.1926..#page/n530/mode/1up }}</ref> There was no direct definition, but rather "See quot. 1727", a reference to the latest of the entry's five [[Historical dictionary|historical citations]], namely the definition in the 1727 ''[[An Universal Etymological English Dictionary|Universal Etymological English Dictionary]]'', which was in [[Neo-Latin]]: {{lang|la|pudendum muliebre}} ("female private part").<ref name="oed1"/><ref name="brewer2007">{{cite book |last1=Brewer |first1=Charlotte |title=Treasure-house of the Language: The Living OED |date=2007 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-12429-3 |pages=204–205 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pHfOX6DRPv8C&pg=PA204 |access-date=11 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref> Two of the other OED citations included quotes: ''Vanity of Vanities'' and a c.&nbsp;1704 bawdy verse with a variant spelling: "At last, as groping thro' a dang'rous Street, / Where Stones and Twaits in frosty Winters meet".<ref name="oed1"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Browne |first1=Thomas |title=The Works |date=1711 |volume=II |publisher=Briscoe |page=182 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gs9LAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA182 |access-date=11 July 2020 |language=en |chapter=A Sober Slip in the Dark}}</ref>
The two unquoted citations were a 1656 translation of [[Martial's Epigrams|Martial's ''Epigrams'']]<ref name="oed1"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fletcher |first1=R[obert] |title=Ex otio negotium. Or, Martiall his epigrams translated. With sundry poems and fancies |date=1656 |via=EEBO |publisher=William Shears |others=engraved by Robert Vaughan |location=London |page=104 |chapter-url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A89611.0001.001/1:5.11.13?rgn=div3;view=fulltext |access-date=11 July 2020 |chapter=Lib. 11.; In Ʋxorem, Epig. 44. |quote=Give not male names then to such things as thine / But think thou hast two Twats ô wife of mine.}}</ref> and a 1719 bawdy song by [[Thomas d'Urfey]].<ref name="oed1"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=D'Urfey |first1=Thomas|title=Wit and mirth: or, Pills to purge melancholy |volume=III |date=1719 |publisher=J. Tonson |location=London |page=307 |quote="I took her by the lilly white hand / And by the Twat I caught her" |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/witmirthorpillst02durf/page/307 |access-date=11 July 2020 |language=en |chapter=A Scotch Song}}</ref> In 1986 the ''Supplement to the OED'' deleted the "obsolete" label and added twentieth-century quotations and the figurative insult as a second sense.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burchfield |first1=R. W |title=A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary |date=1986 |volume=4 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |pages=1055 |isbn=978-0-19-861115-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/supplementtooxfo04burc/page/n1055 |access-date=11 July 2020 |language=en |via=Internet Archive |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="brewer2007"/>

Besides Thomas Wright's 1857 dialect dictionary ("{{smallcaps|twat}} {{lang|la|pudendum f.}}"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=Thomas |title=Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English |date=1857 |publisher=London |location=Henry G. Bohn |page=985 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082311717&view=1up&seq=1001 |access-date=11 July 2020}}</ref>) the word also appears in [[Joseph Wright (linguist)|Joseph Wright]]'s 1892 ''Grammar of the Dialect of [[Windhill and Wrose|Windhill]]'' ("twot {{lang|la|pudendum fem.}}"<ref>{{cite book |last=Wright |first=Joseph |date=1892 |title=A Grammar of the Dialect of Windhill |url=https://archive.org/details/grammarofdialec00wrig |location=London, UK |publisher=Truebner and Co. |pages=[https://archive.org/details/grammarofdialec00wrig/page/77 77], [https://archive.org/details/grammarofdialec00wrig/page/251 251]}}</ref>) but not in the latter's 1905 ''[[English Dialect Dictionary]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=Joseph |title=The English dialect dictionary |date=1905 |volume=6 |publisher=Henry Frowde |location=Oxford |pages=[https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi06wrig/page/280 280], [https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi06wrig/page/294 294] |url=https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi06wrig/ |language=en}}</ref> The 1950s  [[Survey of English Dialects]] recorded the word at several sites as the term for a cow's vulva.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Upton |first1=Clive |last2=Parry |first2=David |last3=Widdowson |first3=John David Allison |date=1994 |title=Survey of English Dialects: The Dictionary and Grammar |location=UK |publisher=Routledge |page=451 |isbn=9780415020299}}</ref>

[[Edward Bulwer-Lytton]]'s 1870 science fiction novel ''[[The Coming Race]]'', uses it to mean [[tadpole]] in an apparent satire on [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]:

{{quote|Among the pithy sayings which, according to tradition, the philosopher bequeathed to posterity in rhythmical form and sententious brevity, this is notably recorded: "Humble yourselves, my descendants; the father of your race was a 'twat' (tadpole): exalt yourselves, my descendants, for it was the same Divine Thought which created your father that develops itself in exalting you.}}

== Modern use==
In 1979, British punk poet [[John Cooper Clarke]] included the poem "Twat" on his album ''[[Walking Back to Happiness]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/John-Cooper-Clarke-Walking-Back-To-Happiness/release/3056557|title=Walking Back To Happiness|website=Discogs|date=1979 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cyberspike.com/clarke/twat.html|title=Twat - John Cooper Clarke|website=www.cyberspike.com}}</ref> It has been described, by Nick Duerden of ''[[The Independent]]'', as "memorable".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/john-cooper-clarke-the-punk-poet-whose-time-has-come-again-8165968.html|title=The punk poet whose time has come again|date=23 September 2012|website=The Independent}}</ref>

In August 2008, [[Random House]], the publisher of the children's book ''[[My Sister Jodie]]'' by [[Jacqueline Wilson]], decided after receiving three complaints to reprint the word ''twat'' as ''twit'' in future editions of the novel so as not to offend readers or their parents.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/21/jacqueline.wilson|title= 'Offensive' word to be removed from Jacqueline Wilson book|work= The Guardian|first= Alison|last= Floot|date= 21 August 2008|access-date= 13 March 2010}}</ref>

In a 2009 breakfast radio interview with [[Christian O'Connell]], British [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] leader and future [[UK Prime Minister|Prime Minister]] [[David Cameron]] quipped that "the trouble with [[Twitter]], the instantness of it—too many twi<!--sic: he didn't says "tweets"-->ts might make a twat".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/5930350/David-Cameron-apologises-for-Twitter-radio-swearing-gaffe.html|title=David Cameron apologises for Twitter radio swearing gaffe|publisher= Telegraph Media Group|date=29 Jul 2009|access-date= 11 November 2013}}</ref> O'Connell said Cameron did not realise the word could cause offense until [[Gabrielle Bertin, Baroness Bertin|Gabrielle Bertin]] advised him to issue an apology.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Siddique |first1=Haroon |title=David Cameron says sorry for 'twat' comment during radio interview |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jul/29/david-cameron-apology-radio-twitter |access-date=11 July 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=29 July 2009}}</ref>

In his 2011 book ''Filthy English'', linguist Peter Silverton asked, "Can you distinguish an utter twat from a complete [[Prick (slang)|prick]]? I think you can. An utter twat knows not what he or she does. A complete prick does."<ref>{{cite book |last=Peter Silverton|first=Peter |title=Filthy English: The How, Why, When And What Of Everyday Swearing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xSErq0ssG74C&pg=PT52 |publisher=Portobello Books |date=2011 |page=52|isbn=9781846274527 }}</ref>

Workers who go to the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and work remotely from home on Mondays and Fridays have been irreverently called "TWaTs".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-twat-revolution-office-on-tuesday-wednesday-and-thursday-only | title=The TWaT revolution: Office on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday only &#124; the Spectator | date=17 January 2019 }}</ref> Although the term predated the [[COVID-19 lockdowns]] it has become more prevalent since, as more people partially return to offices.

==Sensitivity==
For the purposes of film certification, usage of the word is not considered as serious as many other swear words.  It is listed by the [[British Board of Film Classification]] as an example of "moderate language" for the [[British Board of Film Classification#Current certificates|12 certificate]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/about-classification/12a-and-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031103731/https://bbfc.co.uk/about-classification/12a-and-12|url-status=dead|archive-date=31 October 2019|title=12a and 12|website=www.bbfc.co.uk}}</ref>  However, the film ''[[Kes (film)|Kes]]'' originally released in 1969 and given a 'U' certificate by the then British Board of Film Censors, denoting suitable for children, has in later years been re-certified [[British Board of Film Classification#Current certificates|PG]] in the United Kingdom, meaning: "All ages admitted, but certain scenes may be unsuitable for young children. Should not disturb children aged 8 years or over", despite more than one instance of the word.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064541/parentalguide|title=- IMDb|via=www.imdb.com}}</ref>  The word also appears in writing in [[The Anniversary (Fawlty Towers)|an episode]] of ''[[Fawlty Towers]]'' (the letters on the sign have been rearranged to say "Flowery Twats").  The episode has a 12 certificate.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/fawlty-towers-vod|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170415012053/http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/fawlty-towers-vod|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 April 2017|title=Fawlty Towers|website=www.bbfc.co.uk}}</ref>

It also is not on the list of the [[seven dirty words]] by [[George Carlin]] in his 1972 [[monologue]] "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television",<ref>{{cite web |author=Doug Linder |url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/filthywords.html |title=Filthy Words by George Carlin |publisher=Law.umkc.edu |url-status=dead |access-date=18 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110123114427/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/filthywords.html |archive-date=23 January 2011 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> perhaps because the word is much less common in North America than in Britain, although it was used as a term of insult in [[Mel Brooks]]' comedy western ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'' (1974).

Unlike many other swear words, it is included in Google's auto-complete function.<ref>[http://www.pcworld.com/article/2091416/these-are-the-filthy-words-google-voice-search-doesnt-want-to-hear.html These are the filthy words Google voice search doesn't want to hear] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160831034935/http://www.pcworld.com/article/2091416/these-are-the-filthy-words-google-voice-search-doesnt-want-to-hear.html |date=31 August 2016 }}, PC World</ref>

In 2023 the UK [[Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)|Advertising Standards Authority]] rejected two complaints about an ad in ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' for the comedy show "[[Dawn French]] is a Huge Twat", commenting,  "the use of the word would be understood by readers to be self-deprecating and tongue-in-cheek, and it was not, for example, used in a sexual context".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/mar/15/dawn-french-ad-cleared-by-watchdog-after-complaints-about-title-of-new-show |title=Dawn French ad cleared by watchdog after title of show draws complaints |first=Kevin |last=Rawlinson |date=15 March 2023 |access-date=15 March 2023 |newspaper=The Guardian }}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Wiktionary}}
* [[Cunt]]
* [[Twatt, Orkney]]
* [[Twatt, Shetland]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

[[Category:English profanity]]
[[Category:Pejorative terms for women]]
[[Category:American and British English differences]]