Stupid Bunts
Jacqueline Wilson falls out with Asda after spelling twit with an 'a' - Times Online
But that letter has led to a supermarket chain removing a book from its shelves, the publisher agreeing to remove the offending word from the next edition and one of Britain's bestselling authors being made to look rather foolish.
The decision by Random House to remove the word from Jacqueline Wilson's My Sister Jodie followed a complaint from Anne Dixon from Co Durham...“I am not a prude. In fact, I am quite broadminded, but this is completely inappropriate for children. They should not have to be subjected to trash and vulgarity. I did not expect this from a well-respected author and do not want my young niece to have to see this obscene slang.”
John Simpson, the chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary said: “I do not think it is felt to be the worst swear word in the language. It is used to mean a mere fool without any indication of what its original meaning is. I am a bit surprised that it has been taken out.”
Whoops, it never occurred to me that those literary critics at ASDA would be offended if I called them a bunch of twats.
Comments
Not that surprising, really.
Walmart have got form for this sort of thing in the US.
Posted by: David M | August 22, 2008 8:59 AM
Can we expect a follow-up, banning all the children's books containing the word pussy?
Best regards
Posted by: Nigel Sedgwick | August 22, 2008 9:25 AM
On a similar vein of words meaning different things to different people, an American might, vulgarly, refer to a girl's fanny, but doing the same thing in England will get his face slapped, since, in the US, she will sit on it, whereas an English girl's fanny is close by, but on the other side.
It's a fun world, ain't it?
Posted by: Tony Edwards | August 22, 2008 11:34 AM
The chief editor of the OED doesn't inspire much confidence in his dictionary. I thought the word under discussion was 'twat', but his definition, 'a mere fool', is in fact the definition of 'twit'. There is a world of difference between the two words. 'Twit' implies no malevolence, simply stupidity (like, for instance, 'dickhead'); 'twat', on the other hand, implies no stupidity, but malevolence in some form, wilful or otherwise (such as, for instance, selfishness, officiousness, meanness or vindictiveness). I have heard someone being referred to as 'a daft twat', but in that formulation the second word signifies practically nothing (just like the word 'bugger' in such a phrase as 'stupid bugger'), and is really just a cypher, there only to fill a space with a suitably 'rude' word.
Posted by: DOS | August 24, 2008 9:54 PM