• letsgo@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Reminds me of the time I had to explain to a friend that twat was not a synonym for twit.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I once used the word twat around my then-girlfriend and she “corrected” me, insisting it was pronounced “twah”. Turns out she thought people saying it were trying to use the French word toit and mispronouncing it. No idea why she thought anybody would want to call somebody else a French roof.

    • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      You’re friend wasn’t the first to make such a mistake. There’s a poem from 1841 by Robert Browning, called Pippa Passes, in which he misunderstands the meaning of the word “twat.” Apparently he thought it was the name for part of a nun’s outfit.

      But at night, brother howlet, over the woods,
      Toll the world to thy chantry;
      Sing to the bats’ sleek sisterhoods
      Full complines with gallantry:
      Then, owls and bats,
      Cowls and twats,
      Monks and nuns, in a cloister’s moods,
      Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry!