- 1笨蛋、傻瓜、呆子(英式用法,語氣輕,常帶開玩笑或自嘲意味,比 idiot 溫和很多)。但仍是罵人的話,對陌生人或上對下說還是會刺人。
A twit is a foolish or silly person. It is a mild insult — much softer than idiot or fool — and it is mainly British. Calling someone a twit says they have done something daft, not that they are stupid in a deep way. Very often it is said with affection, or about yourself: "I locked my keys in the car. What a twit." Parents say it to children, friends say it to friends. In children's books it is a safe word for a silly adult; Roald Dahl even wrote a book called The Twits.
Because it is so mild, it is easy to over-trust. It is still an insult. Said to a stranger, or by a boss to a worker, it stings. And there is a class edge to it in Britain: "an upper-class twit" is a set phrase for a rich, useless young man, and that use is not at all.
There is a second, older word spelt the same: to twit someone means to tease them, to keep reminding them of something . "He twitted her about her singing." You will meet this only in older books; almost nobody says it now, but it is worth recognising, because it is where the insult came from — the person being teased, then the sort of person you would tease.
Americans understand twit but rarely use it; they say jerk, idiot, or dummy.
組成The verb came first: an older English word ætwītan, meaning to blame or reproach someone, which wore down over the centuries to atwite and then simply twit. So the first meaning was "to keep telling someone off", and from teasing someone, the word slid over to naming the person you would tease. The noun's exact path is not fully settled.
原始詞典資料13 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,摘錄並精簡格式,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
twitverb詞源 1/twɪt/
- 1
To blame or reproach (someone), especially in a good-natured or teasing manner; also, to ridicule or tease (someone).
- No man for deſpite, / By worde or by write / His felowe to twite, […]
- [I]f vvee meane to tvvit a man that he is a foole, vve vvill ſay thou knovveſt not vvhat thou ſayeſt.
- 2
archaicTo criticize or disapprove of (something), especially in a good-natured or teasing manner.
- But in the Lovver Houſe ſome there vvere vvhich handled theſe things more tumultuouſly, namely, Bell and Monſon, great Lavvyers, Dutton, Paul VVentvvorth, and others, vvhich tvvitted the Authority of the Queen's Majeſty too much, […]
- 3
computingengineeringmathematicsTo ignore or kill file (a user on a bulletin board system).
- However, on the Internet BBS's such as Quartz (now dead), Prism, Monsoon, Sunset, ect,^([sic – meaning etc]) someone pulling that kind of crap is likely to get flamed quite fast and twitted before he/she can breathe.
- Not only are some of the notoriously foul-mouthed echoes excluded from the BBS message base, but each message is auto-censored for key words that are, in the opinion of the SysOp (me in this case), offensive to a "G" audience. And no, it isn't 100% effective. And no, there is no "thought purification program" that can filter out some folks^([sic]) obscene ideas that can be expressed w/o written vulgarities. That has to be simply "dealt" with, either by ignoring or twitting the individual that offends habitually.
- 4
obsoleteFollowed by it: to speak or write (something) in a taunting or teasing manner.
- 5
To blame or reproach, especially in a good-natured or teasing manner.
- Secrecy about B.R. plans for reorganisation and closure of lines and notably some failures to consult with staff representatives concerned with redundancy, are defects with which the railway unions have twitted Dr. Beeching.
- H[enry] R[ichard] Fox Bourne, secretary of the Aborigines' Protection Society – often twitted for being an 'armchair critic' – wrote in a review of one of [Henry Morton] Stanley's books: 'The Society is not condemning Mr Stanley or his subordinates so much, but the mounting of an expedition with aims and methods which almost necessitated the cruelties and slaughters that were incident to it … It seems better to remain in armchairs and pass resolutions than wantonly to embark on perilous enterprises, which can only be carried out by means that degrade Englishmen.'
- 6
dialectalTo be indiscreet; to gossip.
twitnoun詞源 1/twɪt/
- 1
A jibe, reproach, or taunt, especially one made in a good-natured or teasing manner.
- [T]he ſayd Thomas Hilles & this Reſpondent ſhevvyd the Frear Barons of certayne old Bookes that they had: as of iiij Evangeliſtes, and certayne Epiſtles of Peter & Poule in Engliſhe. VVhich Bookes the ſayd Frear dyd litle regard, and made a tvvyte of it, & ſayd, A poynt for them, for they be not to be regarded tovvard the nevv printed Teſtament in Engliſhe.
- Wid[ow]. Novv I have receiv'd you into my Family, / I hope you vvill let my maids go quietly about / Their buſineſs, Sir. / S[ir] Fred[erick Frollick]. Upon condition there be no tvvits of the good man / Departed; no preſcription pleaded for evil cuſtoms / On the VVedding night.
- 2
informalAn annoying or foolish person.
- What do you mean, since when did I become such a radical fairy! […] Since I started knowing twits like you, you twit!
- 3
archaicdialectalA person who chatters or gossips inanely; a chatterer, a gossip or gossiper; also, a person who divulges private information about others or is indiscreet; a tattletale.
- Young Strephon he has Woo'd me long, / And Courted me with Pipe and Song; / But I a silly, silly peevish Twit, / For want of Sense, for want of Wit, / Have phoo'd, and cry'd, / Have pish'd, and fy'd, / And play'd the fool, and lost my Time, / And almost slipp'd, and almost slipp'd, / And almost slipp'd my Maiden Prime.
twitintj詞源 2/twɪt/
- 1
Used to represent the short, high-pitched call of a small bird, or a similar sound made by something else: cheep, tweet.
- Midnights bell goes ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, / Then dogs doe hovvle, and not a bird does ſing: / But the Nightingale, and ſhe cries tvvit, tvvit, tvvit, tvvit, / Ovvles then on euerie bovve doe ſit.
- Twit twit twit / Jug jug jug jug jug jug / So rudely forc'd. / Tereu
twitnoun詞源 2/twɪt/
- 1
A short, high-pitched call of a small bird, or a similar sound made by something else; a cheep, a chirp, a tweet.
- The minutes seem'd hours—with impatience she heard / The flap of a leaf, and the twit of a bird; […]
twitnoun詞源 3/twɪt/
- 1
informalChiefly in the form in a twit: clipping of twitter (“a state of excitement or nervousness”).
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形:
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary,已精簡格式;依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用,改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。