Jacqueline Wilson falls out with Asda after spelling twit with an 'a'

[MmeLindt]

In the Times today.

The word "twat" was used as an alternative to idiot or twit in our house for years and noone batted an eyelid.

Is it a regional thing?

Aw no, I don't say twat in front of DC so I guess I don't see it as a twit substitute really after all...

A lot of people use 'twat' in an inoffensive way but it does refer to the lady fandan so it was perhaps a bit naive of JW to use the word.

However, not worth any stramash.

It is odd how someone can get so agitated about a slight sweary word but not mind at all about some of the harrowing issues JW sometimes writes about.

'Oh yes, little Jemima does like the book about a parent having a mental breakdown and the book about domestic abuse but she was so offended by the word twat'

lilymoly - interesting point re the verb 'to twat'. I don't think that refers to genetalia at all.

oooh but in some regions it is waaaay more than a 'slightly sweary word'

I live in the NE and it's a def. hard core swear word here. Would not like to see it in a children's book at all.

Someone also mentioned "getting tw*tted" - 'round here it means getting really drunk.

really? okay, fair enough

But Janet on Two Pints is always going on about "twatting" (hitting) people...

In Gloucestershire it is interchangeable with 'twit'.

We only found out that it's actually a Not Very Nice Word when my DSis moved to Cheshire and at a high-powered work meeting remarked that an absent team member was a bit of a twat. She got taken aside pretty sharpish and asked for an explanation by her boss. She was mortified.

yes, to twat someone means 'hit' to me.

Rude where I'm from (N West England).

Unfortunately my mum didn't realise it was rude when she was a newly married 18 year old and called my dad's boss a "silly twat"...

I'm from the Campsie area north of Glasgow and twat means idiot.

Anne Dixon needs a hobby. Some people are professional complainers and she seems like a prime candidate.

TwoIfBySea if you called someone a twat where Anne Dixon comes from you'd probably end up getting a slap for your trouble.

Boysarelikedogs
How embarrassing for your SIL.

You know, DH's company is paying for us to have Cross Cultural Training before we move to Switzerland. No idea what that involves, but perhaps they will help us avoid calling someone a silly fanjo.

Perhaps companies in UK need to offer training when employees move to a new area

Used to use this word all the time when we were wee, totally innocently and were never pulled up about it. A few years ago DH pointed out that it's the equivalent of 'see you next tuesday' so have been trying to save it up for special occasions...

Used to use this word all the time when we were wee, totally innocently and were never pulled up about it. A few years ago DH pointed out that it's the equivalent of 'see you next tuesday' so have been trying to save it up for special occasions...

"what with him and his barm cakes (bread ROLLS FFS"

COBS!! They're bloody cobs!! Not rolls, baps, barm cakes, sarnies, they're called cobs!!!

Rant over, as you were

I'm also in Lancashire and it is a very bad word up here, on a par with fuck I'd say.

I remember my whole family being when the letters of Fawlty Towers were rearranged at the beginning to 'flowery twats'.

Oo, might try a name change..

So have we discovered the border where twat changes from meaning "idiot" or something similarly harmlessly insulting to where it means something rude?

another northerner (tyne and wear) and twat is a naughty word!

as for the bread rolls.... bap

Love the number and quality of euphemisms on this thread for fanjos etc

I'm from the north - I wouldn't use it in front of ds and would send him to his room if he used it to me.

To me it's a rude word - like putting "sht" or "cock" in a book for children, unless you are american in which case "cock" would be perfectly okay as long as it meant rooster.