Twitter Terminology – Twitterisms

I am all a twitter with tweets, twurls and twitts having just been introduced to the twitter phenomenon.I resisted the call to arms for a very long time – but have taken the plunge – and now I am hooked. There are several elements which appeal to me – not only the transportability, the short attention span snippets and the breadth of interaction – but also the potential applications within my own profession. I will explore these issues later – but first to semantic derivation and an attempt to unify ‘Twitter Terminology’

There are many suggestions floating around in the blogosphere – but I would love to collate some of the seamless thoughts and migrant philosophies into and more formal nomenclature – will gladly incorporate comments and suggestions to make the list more definitive.

Twit [twitt]: noun; an individual who partakes in the action of ‘twittering‘ and utilizes the conversational paradigm that is ‘Twitter‘ . Sometimes written as ‘twitt’ to avoid confusion with the alternate Old English derivation of twit [informal noun of Old English derivation - silly or foolish person afflicted with a state of nervous excitement] e.g. Good morning Twitts; calling all Twitts.

Twitter: verb; formal derivation – social online interaction defined by rapid short bursts of conversation. ORIGIN: early 21st century (in the sense [virtual social interaction]) from the Latin Twittus: short, sharp interjection. E.g. Amazing news – I must Twitter that

Twitts are gathered across the globe, their numbers growing exponentially as they fabricate a pullulating megalopolis of virtual conversationalists. This populous may be referred to as Tweeple [formal] or My Tweeps [informal] E.g. I must refrain from another beverage – I have Tweeple to meet [formal] or alternate, yo mama, off ma back ya ‘ho I’m meeting wi’me Tweeps [vulgar, informal]. 

Tweet: noun; written communication sent using the medium of Twitter. I have a Tweet in my inbox, I just sent a Tweet. verb; I will Tweet that link

Twoosh: A perfect, 140 character Tweet.

Twittesque: in the style of a Tweet. ORIGIN from French, via Italian -esco from medieval Latin -iscus. E.g I love the way Bush handled the economic crisis – it was so Twittesque

Although ‘Tweeple‘ are generally peace loving, there have been notable occasions when a Twitt has become overly ‘Twittical’ [adverb; express adverse or disapproving comments or judgements] and posts containing rank Twitticism resulted in the infamous TwitterGate incident in early 2008

There is another side to Twitter – a darker side, one that the originators never wanted revealed…Twittering is addictive and Twitterholics walk among us. A Twitterholic suffers physical and psychological addiction to ‘Twitter‘ – and are unable to resist the ‘twitch‘ [urge to Twitter]. Although the total number of tweets required to become a Twitterholic has yet to be recorded, informally Twitterholism is defined by more than 500 posts a day; more than 5000 Following and withdrawal symptoms when further than 20 yards away from an EMR emitting device for more than 2 hours.

Other recognised medical conditions are listed below 

• Twittitis [debilitating inflammatory disorder of the index finger]
• Twittacosis [symptoms of headache, cough and profuse sweating herald the disease and are usually followed by significant neurological deterioration leading to transient vocal cord paralysis] 
• Twittubations [involuntary perpetual nodding movement of the head in response to tweets]
• Atwitterphonia: [condition arising from the inability to constrain thoughts to 140 character spaces resulting in expressive prolixity, verbosity and garrulousness of speech]
• Twittettes Syndrome [uncontrollable bursts of rapid-fire 140 character grouped expletives]. This has prompted the Mayo Clinic to open a subspeciality caourse in Twittology to help ease the suffering of those afflicted

Additional incorporation of the Twitt- prefix leads to a community of words to describe applications, events or pages to entice the Twitterstruck such as Twittown [the unofficial Twitter community] Twitstats [Catch up on the highest ranking Twitts] or Twinfluence. These are amply explored on the Twitter home page the official blog or the unofficial TwitWiki

Additional resources:

 

• Urban dictionary for ‘Twitterism’ (thanks @symtym)

 

Would love to hear any other suggestions or commonly used Twitterisms so I can host a complete collection.

Formal Twitter nomenclature – the responses

1. Twart: verb [intrans.] to miss or garble Tweets – also known as ‘Twurps’ @symtym
2. Twittiverse: noun; (the Twitterverse) all existing Twits, Twurls and Tweets in Twitterdom – also known as Twittersphere @scanman