twat

Etymology

The origin is unknown or uncertain.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The OED suggests that it may come from syllables used in the refrain of songs, comparing “Twittye twitty twatty foole”, the name of an apparently bawdy song mentioned in 1602, and the early modern twit-twat, vagina (1660).^[2] It also considers a link with late Middle English twachylle, perhaps a variant of twitchel;^[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang likewise tentatively compares the dialect word twitchel, a narrow passage.^[7] The American Heritage Dictionary suggests a dialect word going back to an unrecorded Old English *þwāt (“a cut”), related to þwītan (“to cut off”) and to thwaite, a piece of cultivated land, which is Old Norse þveit;^[8][9] the OED rejects this connection on grounds of form and meaning.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The female genitals: 1656, in Robert Fletcher's translation of Martial's Epigrams.^{[2][10][7][3]}

Semantic evolution

Bailey's dictionary of 1730 recorded the word, with the compound twat-scowerer, a surgeon or doctor.^[10] Robert Browning used it in Pippa Passes (1841), in the line "Cowls and twats", unaware of its meaning: he had found it in a Royalist rhyme of 1660 against Sir Henry Vane and took it for a part of a nun's dress, to pair with the monk's cowl.^[10][2][11] As a general term of abuse, a stupid or contemptible person, it is recorded from 1929, in Frederic Manning's The Middle Parts of Fortune,^[2][11] and Ayto mentions it as one suggested source of the noun twit, a fool.^[11] The insult is now chiefly British,^[2][3] while in regional American English the word meant the buttocks, a use recorded from 1937 and now rare.^[2] From the 1990s the noun was turned into verbs: to twat around, to waste time (1992), and to twat on, to talk at length foolishly (1996).^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1656 – the female genitals.^[2][7]
• 1660 – twit-twat, in the same sense.^[2][7]
• 1730 – in Bailey's dictionary.^[10]
• 1841 – Browning's mistaken use for a part of a nun's dress, in Pippa Passes.^[2][10]
• 1929 – term of abuse, a contemptible or stupid person.^[2]
• 1937 – in regional American English, the buttocks.^[2]
• 1992 – verb, to twat around, to waste time.^[2]
• 1996 – to twat on, to talk foolishly at length.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (vulgar slang) The female genitals; the vulva.^[6][3][2]
2. (vulgar slang, chiefly British) A stupid, obnoxious or contemptible person; an idiot.^[6][3][2]
3. (offensive slang) A disparaging term for a woman.^[6][12]
4. (US regional, now rare) The buttocks.^[3][2][5]

Verb

1. (British slang) to twat around or about: to fool around or waste time.^[2][7]
2. (British slang) to twat on: to talk at length in a foolish or pointless way.^[2][7]

Related words

• twit
• twitchel
• thwaite

Usage notes

The verb twat, to hit hard, recorded from 1974, is probably a separate formation of imitative origin, comparable to swat, according to the OED;^[2] Collins also calls it probably imitative,^[6] but Green's Dictionary of Slang derives it from the noun.^[7] Rhymes with sot and shot in the late 17th and early 18th centuries already suggest the pronunciation /twɒt/,^[2] and the word has often been printed with asterisks or dashes to avoid a charge of obscenity.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin