Paid Members Carbomb Posted October 6, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted October 6, 2017 Hmmm, I couldn't find it either. That's an odd one, because my first memory of it having any kind of definition was back when I was at secondary school, and someone asked one of our teachers what it meant. He said "pregnant guppy", but he seemed bemused that people were using it as an insult. Either way, though, it seems odd that, given that it does appear to mean "vagina" after all, it was used as a less offensive alternative to "cunt". Online dictionary says this about its origins: 1650-60; perhaps orig. dialectal variant of *thwat, *thwot, presumed Modern English outcome of Old English *thwat, akin to Old Norse thveit cut, slit, forest clearing (> E dial. (N England) thwaite forest clearing) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Wiseau Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 wait... twat means pregnant fish? I was taught by scholars from the finest institutions that prat meant pregnant fish, not twat. twat is a word that pops up when Batman hits people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted October 6, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted October 6, 2017 14 minutes ago, Harry Wiseau said: wait... twat means pregnant fish? I was taught by scholars from the finest institutions that prat meant pregnant fish, not twat. twat is a word that pops up when Batman hits people. Y'know what? That's what it was! I've completely misremembered it. It was quite some time ago, in my defence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Kaz Hayashi Posted October 6, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted October 6, 2017 Much love for the words, the more absurd the better. However I'm also a man of simple pleasures. I love a good swear word. I have never been offended by swearing and I love the fact that a word can have such an impact that people can become angered by a word just being used in public. A word that doesn't have a personal significance such as a racist term for example, obviously those are horrible due the weight and reasoning. But a simple swear word can be perfect for so many things, let's take the word 'piss'. Piss is a great word, it sounds great, Piss. It means to urinate and i'd argue it is onomatopoeia. It also means to get drunk, it can be used as a gentler way of saying 'fuck off'... 'piss off', it's just a bit more forgiving. It means to be angered and also when someone is taking the mick. It's incredibly simple, only 4 letters and 2 of them are the same. It's probably over looked compared to a lot of other swear words due to the fact it's less aggressive than others and boarderline as to weather it's a swear word at all. Good old Piss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Gus Mears Posted October 6, 2017 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 6, 2017 19 minutes ago, Kaz Hayashi said: I love a good swear word. I have never been offended by swearing and I love the fact that a word can have such an impact that people can become angered by a word just being used in public. A word that doesn't have a personal significance such as a racist term for example, obviously those are horrible due the weight and reasoning. But a simple swear word can be perfect for so many things, let's take the word 'piss'. Piss is a great word, it sounds great, Piss. It means to urinate and i'd argue it is onomatopoeia. It also means to get drunk, it can be used as a gentler way of saying 'fuck off'... 'piss off', it's just a bit more forgiving. It means to be angered and also when someone is taking the mick. It's incredibly simple, only 4 letters and 2 of them are the same. It's probably over looked compared to a lot of other swear words due to the fact it's less aggressive than others and boarderline as to weather it's a swear word at all. Good old Piss. I very much enjoyed your peroration on this, but it is the most Patridge thing I have read in ages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sphinx Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 Add 'piece of piss' to the uses too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Kaz Hayashi Posted October 6, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted October 6, 2017 8 minutes ago, Sphinx said: Add 'piece of piss' to the uses too. Indeed, also known as 'piss easy'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SuperBacon Posted October 6, 2017 Members Share Posted October 6, 2017 You know when you get to the age where you're allowed to swear in front of your parents? My Dad never had a problem with the word fuck or shit or even cunt, but he drew the line at twat. I pointed out it was a pregnant fish but Papa Bacon was having none of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Tommy! Posted October 6, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted October 6, 2017 6 hours ago, Gus Mears said: I very much enjoyed your peroration on this, but it is the most Patridge thing I have read in ages. I disagree and offer Kaz my most enthusiastic contrafibularities for his post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted October 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted October 7, 2017 56 minutes ago, Tommy! said: I disagree and offer Kaz my most enthusiastic contrafibularities for his post. I disagree also, and Gus should be aspeptic, phrasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused Kaz such pericombobulations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Kaz Hayashi Posted October 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted October 7, 2017 Piss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Tommy! Posted October 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted October 7, 2017 1 hour ago, Kaz Hayashi said: Piss Sausage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Kaz Hayashi Posted October 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted October 7, 2017 6 minutes ago, Tommy! said: Sausage! Fair enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted October 9, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted October 9, 2017 On 06/10/2017 at 3:51 PM, Carbomb said: Y'know what? That's what it was! I've completely misremembered it. It was quite some time ago, in my defence. There's definitely a widespread belief about "twat" meaning pregnant fish, too. It's on the internets. Looking on wiktionary for the etymology of the word "prat", it has an obsolete meaning from the 13th-17th century of "cunning or astute". I wouldn't be surprised if that's the root of its usage to mean idiot - a lot of insults started out meaning the exact opposite, were then used sarcastically (so calling someone a "prat" in this sense would be the equivalent of calling someone "Einstein" when they say something stupid), until over the time the original meeting was lost and only the inversion remained. Can't remember anything specifically, but there's a few insults mentioned in Peter Ackroyd's Queer City that have a similar background. The best thing about swearing is the tmesis mentioned earlier in the thread - you can only do that in the English language with swearing, surely? You can say fan-fucking-tastic, you can't say abso-very-lutely. The middle bit has to be swearing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted October 9, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted October 9, 2017 I would guess it depends on what you define as swearing. I've heard a few people (particularly on TV) use minced swearwords or softened interjections to do it, like abso-flipping-lutely. It's not common, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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