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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that twat is a bad word?

55 replies

Klaw · 20/08/2009 23:26

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.

OP posts:
bigpantywoman · 20/08/2009 23:28

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.

LightningBolt · 20/08/2009 23:28

I think David Camerons spin doctors would now agree

Original poster
Klaw · 20/08/2009 23:32

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

OP posts:
TalkIsCheap · 20/08/2009 23:32

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

GrimmaTheNome · 20/08/2009 23:33

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

GrimmaTheNome · 20/08/2009 23:37

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!

paisleyleaf · 20/08/2009 23:39

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

Carrotfly · 20/08/2009 23:40

Well of course it is .....

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 20/08/2009 23:44

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?

GrimmaTheNome · 20/08/2009 23:48

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.

GentleOtter · 20/08/2009 23:49

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.

GrimmaTheNome · 20/08/2009 23:55

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.

ravenAK · 20/08/2009 23:56

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...

GentleOtter · 20/08/2009 23:57

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

nappyaddict · 21/08/2009 00:01

Twat here means idiot

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 21/08/2009 00:34

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]

2rebecca · 21/08/2009 01:17

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.

screamingabdab · 21/08/2009 08:57

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

PuppyMonkey · 21/08/2009 09:05

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.

dailymailIsPerfectAsaPoopScoop · 21/08/2009 09:06

I use twat all the time.

paisleyleaf · 21/08/2009 09:25

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.

NotEvenTheTrees · 21/08/2009 09:29

It's very offensive where I come from.

gagamama · 21/08/2009 09:31

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.

IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern · 21/08/2009 09:33

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.

GentleOtter · 21/08/2009 09:37

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