Posted Friday 6th March 2009 14:54 GMT
"Twattendang", from the Viking "Twtdnglersk"
Interesting a neither word is found via google.
Wonder what references he used to get these words. Or could it be a bit of twatshite © ?
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 14:55 GMT
Much old English is actually only found in one dictionary, Gurendell's Booke of the Wuyrde, which is kept in the British Library. You need to apply for permission to view it, and while Lester managed to spend a few minutes browsing it when he came to the top of the waiting list, no one has yet been cleared to add any of its content - nor indeed any reference to it - to the internet. Thus it is unGoogleable. It's an amazing case, which I'd write about myself were I allowed to.
(I know I just referred to it myself but I'll be deleting this comment after you've seen it.)
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 15:44 GMT
how long before this ends up on the wikipedophile?
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 15:44 GMT
Actually, it's surprisingly close to accurate, "dangle" appears to be Danish, and "twat" seems to be connected to old english "thwaite", a common word in the viking ravaged areas of NE England.
However I also suspect it may have something to do with Englethwaite in Cumbria. The hills of the area being renowned for the plethora of danglers from the various rocky outcrops.
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 15:44 GMT
It's clearly a fake etymology.
The true etymology is:
David Blaine is a twat.
David Blaine was dangling.
The event, therefore, was called Twatdangling. I have no information on the etymology of the word "twat" or "dangle".
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 15:44 GMT
"Twatdangle" fades into mere greyness in the face of the simple beauty that is "gitwizard".
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 15:49 GMT
with a reference to here.
Then you can reference wikipedia.
And so on
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 15:49 GMT
how can any story about blaine, especially referring to him as a gitwizard, not give kudos to marcus brigstocke whose scathing rants about the egocentric pseudo-magic nutbag repeatedly brought me to the verge of wetting myself.
i'd even go so far as to put a quid or two on marcus having calling the fool-in-a-box stunt a twatdangle in the first place....
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 15:49 GMT
"Interesting a [sic] neither word is found via google."
Not true - I found this entry:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/06/blaine_dictionary/
Is this a googlewhack?
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 16:34 GMT
I second the Brigstocke kudos. Surely he came up with gitwizard and twatdangle first?
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 16:34 GMT
It appears in Beowulf
"WENT he forth to find at fall of night
that haughty house, and heed wherever
the Ring-Danes, twattendang, to rest had gone."
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 16:34 GMT
Having got as far as checking the OED only to find
Twat (n) - a risible person, a humourless cretin (c.f. pedant)
I stopped.
(But not before noting the North Frisian connection of dangeln...)
And then there's Blain(e)
"1. An inflammatory swelling or sore on the surface of the body, often accompanied by ulceration; a blister, botch, pustule; applied also to the eruptions in some pestilential diseases"
I don't need a coat - I don't get out much.
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 16:34 GMT
Quite incorrect, this appears to be multiplying, up to 228 a minute ago...
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 16:34 GMT
'Twatdangle' requires no deep etymology. It just came into being when it was so desperately required.
I agree that 'GitWizard' was similarly essential, and admire Mr Bruggstoke for his part in it, but surely we can just rejoice that there are two words for Blaine which are so perfect as to be nearly onomatopoeic.
I bet you could try either of them out on an impartial observer and he would guess the subject and the context without error.
paris, 'cos even she would understand.
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 16:34 GMT
You're not still refering to that Booke of the Wuyrde crap are you? Even contemporary scholars knew that it was a flawed source, given that it consisted of random words made up by the then well-known cult of the Pubic Education, στωικός παιδεία, or ibikos paideia, though they were also sometimes known as Βικιπαίδεια or Bikipaideia, the Biscuit Education.
Whatever their actual name, I think Chaucer makes a reference to their leader, Iannes of Whaeles, calling him a "totalle queynte".
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 17:05 GMT
Ahhh great... I'm going to be out and about minding my own business, that post is going to pop into my head, and I'm going to be subject of many odd looks as I'll probably start laughing out loud all over again. Too funny!
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 17:05 GMT
I just like saying, or typing, "Twatdangle" when it's appropriate. Great word, thank you Reg.
I'm off to spend a weekend looking for a good time to use "Twatshite" <reaches for railway timetable and a copy of windows 7>
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 22:00 GMT
Twatdangling Gitwizard.
Love it.
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 22:00 GMT
Are delightful testimony to the English language's continuing facility in the invention of new words. Their key merits are that they are indubitably English-sounding, unlike many other invented words.
Has anyone sent notice of these to the OED for inclusion in their files? As nonce words, they won't be entered in the main corpus, but they will be kept on file.
Twatshite I'm not so sure about.
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 22:00 GMT
One interesting fact about Gurendell's famed book is that it omitted the word "GOELLIB", which is the Old English root of the word "gullible".
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 22:00 GMT
Shouldn't that be Grendel's Booke of Wyrdes?
Insert "yo modor" joke here ...
Posted Saturday 7th March 2009 11:07 GMT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/twat_dangle
Posted Saturday 7th March 2009 11:07 GMT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_Wizard
although some dangletard removed Marcus' quote which you can see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Blaine&oldid=271339617
Posted Saturday 7th March 2009 11:07 GMT
"στωικός παιδεία, or ibikos paideia"
I think that's the first time I've seen "στω" transliterated "ib".
Posted Monday 9th March 2009 07:10 GMT
I prefer the term "gitwizard", which I think rolls off the tongue easier.
Posted Monday 9th March 2009 07:10 GMT
In Australia, a twat, is a vagina.
Thus twatdangle refers to the length of the labia minora.
Posted Monday 9th March 2009 10:10 GMT
Dickdent
Definition
Publicity seeking dickhead hanging upside down suspended from apparatus in a public place.
Posted Monday 9th March 2009 11:28 GMT
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Blaine&oldid=240506266
Shame it was deleted
Posted Monday 9th March 2009 13:30 GMT
You're quite right to pick up on that - should have been ηβικός παιδεία.
Posted Monday 9th March 2009 17:07 GMT
ODFO, shurely a Terry Prachet creation....
Paris, another well know tw.. Oh figure it out for yourselves
Posted Monday 16th March 2009 10:43 GMT
"I don't need a coat - I don't get out much."
Brilliant! I'll use that as often as I can get away with.
As to the story itself, see what trouble that bloody Blaine's causing? Shoot the bastard, I say.
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