Do people REALLY not know what twat means? <shock>

[VulpusinaWilfsuit]

David Cameron in trouble

What on earth do people think it means?

He is one, anyway.

I thought twat meant twit.

When I was at school a girl told me "twat" means a pregnant goldfish.

For years I believed her.

when I was young it didn't mean what it meant now. It was a combo of twit and prat. I'm not sue when it turned into the meaning it has now

I was told the pregnant goldfish thing as well

I use the term twat in the same way as I would twit.

It has also been known to be used instead of hit where Im form eg. Shut up or i'll twat you one!

Well I don't come from Scotland, but southern England and it has always been used in the same way as twit down here too.

I didn't even know that it had another meaning until DH told me off for saying it in front of the DSs. I always thought of it as a slightly less childish version of twit.

We had this discussion before over the Jacqueline Wilson thing, and while most people know what it means there does seem to be a strong geographical division between those areas in which it's a very mild term, only slightly stronger than "twit" (and also, as spugs points out, used as a verb for "to hit"), so bandy it about quite a lot, and those area in which it is a Very Rude Word Indeed. The trouble comes when someone moves areas (or writes a book or makes a speech that will he read/heard in more than one area).

Yep, when I was growing up in Nottingham,, it meant no more than twit.

I am Scottish and have always known what twat originally meant. As the years have gone on it has become more commonly used and I think people no longer know or care about it's vulgar meaning preferring Twit - twat.

Robert Browning thought it meant an item of clothing worn by a nun:

Then owls and bats
Cowls and twats
Monks and nuns in a cloister's moods
Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry
from 'Pippa Passes'

bronze, it's always had the genitalia meaning, although there have always been those who didn't realise. Robert Browning, for some reason, thought it meant "a nun's headgear" and used it in that context in his poem "Pippa Passes" in 1841 to widespread hoots of derision from the less innocent-minded. So unless when you were young was before 1841 (and if so, hearty congratulations) I think it probably did mean what it means now...

LOL PortAndLemon, beat you by one minute

good god..... never even occurred to me it was a naughty word

i use it to describe dp when he's being a bit of an idiot... that's how i've always heard it used and it never had any other meaning that i knew of

really? i mean i haven't just slipped into some parallel universe or an april fool's joke of some kind?

Ah, but I took the time to look up the year in which it was written, so I win on general pedantry...

Oh yesm PinkTulips, it definitely is naughty. I know because I called my sister's boyfriend it when I was very young, and he said 'No, not the last time I looked', and then told me what it meant

Fair do's, PortAndLemon, I bow to your superior finnickiness The only reason I knew that is cos I read it in a Bill Bryson book about the English language anyway!

wiki seems to think the majority think of it simply as a derogatory epithet , whilst those with dirty minds think of it meaning a ladies front bottem ,shame on you

So where is it rude and where not? Most people on here seem to be saying it's just another version of twit round their way - cetainly was in my childhood Yorkshire.

and to twat someone (hit em)

Campion I grew up in herts

puppymonkey I grew up in nottingham too, and it was considered a very strong swearword.
you were allowed prat (the pregnant fish one), but twat was just as strong as c*t and f*k.
although: it appeared to be okay when used in extreme anger by my mother () and used as a term for a wallop.....

Urban dictionary says 'twit' is a pregnant fish.

I'm confused over all these words for pregnant fish. Is pregnant fish a code word for something disgusting that I don't know about?

AT the last school I worked at the Head didn't know the true meaning of twat and used to liberally use it in assemblies. In the end a bloke in my dept said he could stand it no longer and write what its true meaning was on a piece of paper and pushed it under his door one day. Shame really, it used to brighten up our assemblies

I also didn't know that berk was considered a very rude word. My dad went mad at me for calling my brother a berk one day and I couldn't undertand what he was in about. I later found out it's rhyming slang and short for Berkshire Hunt. Loads of people don't know that one either, I'll bet.

when I was 7 I got slapped to buggery by my Father for calling him a twat. We had recently moved to a small noethern town and all my classmates used it and I thought it was a yorkshire version of twit.

berk can't be rude my dad uses it and my dads never offensive
I can clearly remember the day he said I'm so so sorry but .... really is a bastard. Can't remember what the bloke had done but it must have been extremely bad

itchy I just dont believe it

in fact berkshire is said bark whereas berk the idiot is said to rhyme with turk