Word: twit Part of Speech: verb Etymology: PIE word *h₂éd The verb is an apheretic form of atwite (“(obsolete) to blame, reproach”), from Middle English atwiten (“to attribute (something) to someone; to blame (something) on someone; to accuse or charge (someone) with something; to speak ill of; to taunt”), from Old English ætwītan (“to blame, reproach; to censure, upbraid; to taunt”), from æt- (prefix meaning ‘at, near; toward’) + wītan (“to accuse; to blame, reproach”) (from Proto-Germanic *wītaną (“to punish; to torment; to know; to see”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see”)). Piecewise doublet of advise. The noun is probably derived from the verb, although it is attested in print earlier. Pronunciation: /twɪt/, [tʰw̥ɪt] 1. To blame or reproach (someone), especially in a good-natured or teasing manner; also, to ridicule or tease (someone). Labels: transitive Example: No man for deſpite, / By worde or by write / His felowe to twite, […] Example: [I]f vvee meane to tvvit a man that he is a foole, vve vvill ſay thou knovveſt not vvhat thou ſayeſt. 2. To criticize or disapprove of (something), especially in a good-natured or teasing manner. Labels: archaic, transitive Example: 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. To ignore or kill file (a user on a bulletin board system). Labels: transitive Example: 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. Example: 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. Followed by it: to speak or write (something) in a taunting or teasing manner. Labels: obsolete, transitive 5. To blame or reproach, especially in a good-natured or teasing manner. Labels: intransitive, transitive Example: 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. Example: 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. To be indiscreet; to gossip. Labels: dialectal, intransitive