to think that twat is a bad word?

[Klaw]

I recently heard a grandmother call a wee boy a twat. I thought it was more than just slang, but wonder now as someone else thinks it's harmless slang.

Am I being over-sensitive? Even if I am, I am still pretty that a woman should call her 3yr old grandson that.

It means vagina. So yes it's not a great word for a grandma to use in reference to her dear grandchild. But otherwise it's a great word, I love it. Very useful in a variety of circumstances.

I think David Camerons spin doctors would now agree

Yes, I know what it means and that's why I always thought it was on parr with the C word, so today when someone told me they had no problem with it and thought it was harmless slang I thought maybe I was being too precious...

Incidently, I've been to Twatt

twat in my area is synonymous with twit

I had to leave home and go to the Big City and embarrass myself in new job before I realised what it actually means

I think its often used simply as a variant of twit, by those in innocent ignorance of its real meaning.

Its a bit like Americans and their blithe use of 'fanny'.

Or when I was quite young and read James Herriot, I encountered 'bugger' for the first time, in the context of Yorkshire farmer calling one of his cows 'tha daft owd bugger' - from the context it was obviously a fairly affectionate term for 'obstreperous animal'. I had no idea why my brother looked shocked and told me I couldn't use that word!

I can't say it and think of it like the c word.

Well of course it is .....

When I was 13 [misty eye syndrome] in 1975, I was told that a twat was a pregnant goldfish.

[naive emoticon]

He came from a military family, is there a connection?

Oh yeah, I remember the goldfish thing, no military connection. (as you are a year younger than me I'm puzzled by your nickname Old....)

Anyhow, this story corroborates the common meaning of twat as synonymous with twit or twerp.

I'm sort of sure that it is not such an offensive word in Scotland especially as some people have it as a surname.
Here it means someone who has been a bit silly.

Methinks it can also be what an upperclass bloke says when he begins to say someone is a twit but then realises he simply can't say twit because that might sound like the pot calling the kettle black and so it emerges as twat.

It's quite rude I think.

In a 'twat' is to 'cunt', as 'nob' or 'cock' is to 'prick' sort of way - definitely refers to genitalia & definitely derogatory if you call someone it, but not the 'worst' available word.

So not necessarily fightin' talk & could be affectionately meant - 'you twat' would usually mean 'you silly person who has done something a bit daft' IME whereas 'you cunt' would mean 'you horrible person who has seriously upset or inconvenienced someone else'.

It's not a word my mum would use to refer to ds - although I can think of occasions when frankly I'd not blame her...

Oh, Orkney and Shetland each have a village called Twatt.

Twat here means idiot

Ah, Grimma, when I first joined I was expecting to be, well, what my name says. I'm pleased (after a while here) to find I'm not, but I kind of like the OLKN shortening (dunno why) so I'll stick with it.

Anyway, I'm a granny now.

[chuffed emoticon]

I always thought twat and twit were fairly inoffensive and interchangable. Have never really heard it used as slang for female genitalia. The c word is used more often and is more offensive if being offensive is what you're after.

Great word, but I wouldn't use in front of (or directed to) a child

There was a similar thread after Cameron's twatiness the other week. In some regions twat it no more offensive than twit. I grew up in Notts and used it all the time in front of my mum and everything.

It was only when I went to college in Leeds that I started realising some people were a bit of my constant use of this word. they musta thought I was a right gobby mare.

Don't think it was "ignorance of its real meaning" whoever said that. It was just used in a different way where I lived.

I use twat all the time.

When I was about 10, I had a friend round to play. She called my little brother a twat. I'd not heard the word before, and she'd used it like "twit". My mum was quick to tell us it's a horrible word to use.
I think sometimes it might be hearing it from a young age, and misunderstanding it's meaning.

It's very offensive where I come from.

I thought it was simply a slightly more brash version of 'twit' until I was about 20. (Although I am now giggling to myself imagining a Roald Dahl book called 'The Twats').

I like it and use it quite frequently, but words like 'twatted' and 'twatfaced' make me cringe. They just seem obviously crude and genital-related.

I'm also in scotland and it is interchanged with twit here rarely ever heard it used as a slang word for female genitalia, in fact only where it was a better fit in rugby songs at school.
I am wary of using it around the children because I am aware of the meaning to some but it is not anywhere near as dodgy as the C word around here.

If a wasp flew in then you would 'twat' it ( from swat, maybe?) so it would not be offensive at all.