Whykay's happenings

The word "twee"

I have been obsessed with the word "twee"! Why? Why, you ask???

I hear my mates say... "She is twee." "Yeah, she is twee." Ok, so I sort of get the idea of what twee means when describing a female from a male perspective, but then the type of girl I thought they would think is twee, is not what I thought! (If you get what I mean.) What is it with this word that is driving me absolute bonkers. Here are the following definitions of the word "twee":

From Cambridge dictionary - http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=twee*1+0:
adjective
ESPECIALLY BRITISH INFORMAL DISAPPROVING
artificially attractive or too perfect
The village has escaped all modern developments, yet without becoming twee or 'preserved'.

Oxford paperback - http://www.askoxford.com/dictionary/twee
twee
adjective (tweer /"twi:/, tweest /"twi:st/) derogatory affectedly dainty or quaint.

Argh! Twee...! This adjective was used recently to describe a painting, which does not have a single female in it. Has the definition changed in the course of time? But this infuriating word comes back every so often, so I can bang my head against the tabletop everytime I hear it.
With laughter I bear with the current meaning I was falsely led to believe it was, and then a dramatic changes when I am comfortable with the meaning.

And guest what I found the Chinese translation for twee from - http://www.tigernt.com
And here it is : 形 矯飾的;可愛的

Twee, hah... yeah, that is twee. You are twee... I am twee? We are twee!!!

Posted by whykay at February 18, 2003 11:22 PM | TrackBack