Why has Twitter spawned a whole twitterverse of new words from tweet cred to twitterhoea, asks Alan Connor.

When Miss Universe contestant Vasuki Sunkavalli was discovered tweeting a journalist’s political commentary as if the thoughts were her own, it wasn’t long before she was accused of twagiarism.

A cocktail of twitter and plagiarism, it’s pretty clear what “twagiarism” means and it’s by no means the first such new word – that is, the first old word to find “tw-” thwacked on to its front end.

Where are these neologisms coming from and why do some people find them irritating? And how useful is “twagiarism” as a term for this very particular alleged misdemeanour?

The “victim” in this story, Wall Street Journal columnist Sadanand Dhume, says it’s useful to make the distinction.

“Twagiarism certainly sounds less serious than plagiarism, as it should,” he says. “It’s a reminder that the twitterverse is much smaller than the universe and that we should keep a sense of humour about it.”

For the record Sunkavalli says she had merely failed to grasp one aspect of twittiquette, namely retweeting, which is quoting another user while giving them credit.

With its 140-character limit, Twitter encourages abbreviation. It’s also an informal forum, one where people are more comfortable inventing terms than they would be in other forms of the written word.

But as the blossoming of words like “twisticuffs” and “tweeple” suggests, there may also be something about “tw”. It’s not universally popular though – the book Twitter for Dummies notes “many avid users actually find [tw- words] rather annoying”.

Twitter’s working name was Stat.us and it seems likely that if it had stuck there would be fewer words coined by adding “st-” or “sta-” at the beginning. They wouldn’t sound as whimsical or effervescent.

Flick through a dictionary and you’ll notice something about the English language’s “tw” words. There are a few related to “two”: twin, twelfth, twilight and so on. And there’s a tiny minority of what you might call fairly sensible words: tweezers, twig and of course tweed.

The rest tend to be of a type that’s more playful or, depending on taste, more grating. “Tw-” words can be about inanity or ignorance: twit, twerp, twonk or twaddle.

They can suggest lightness, smallness or delicacy: tweak, twiddle or twinkle. Or they can flag up that you’re being self-consciously old-fashioned: ’twas and ’twere, ‘twixt and ‘tween. All very twee. Read more.

See: BBC News